This is a doozy. Get comfy. And maybe top off your coffee. Or, just fill up the thermos and pack a lunchbox. We’re wrapping up the book of Genesis.

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We don’t think of Jacob as a prophet. But here he is at the end of his life foretelling events that will befall the descendants of his sons.

Reuben is cut out of the firstborn blessing- removed because of his sin with Bilhah. So the right of primogeniture goes to Jacob’s next firstborn: Joseph.

Simeon & Levi get an anti-blessing for what they did at Shechem.

Zebulun will be mariners

Gad is told that a band of raiders will attack him and he will fight back.

Asher is going to dominate agriculture.

The others are compared to animals:

Issachar – donkey

Dan – serpent (and boy has that raised speculation for centuries!)

Naphtali – deer

Benjamin – wolf

Judah and Joseph get the biggest blessings.

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff between his feet, until Shiloh comes. And to him shall be the obedience of nations.” Genesis‬ ‭49‬:‭10‬ ‭LEB‬‬

One of Judah’s descendants will rule over the nations. And they will all obey! Don’t let the brevity fool you. That’s an astounding prediction! I can’t imagine what Judah must’ve thought when he heard it. Shiloh is a word that means “tranquil” and is a code name for Messiah. Still speaking of this Shiloh Jacob says:

“Binding his donkey to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his clothing in the wine and his garment in the blood of grapes.” Genesis‬ ‭49‬:‭11‬ ‭LEB‬‬

Anybody else thinking of Jesus riding into Jerusalem (triumphal entry #1) on a donkey’s colt? And riding in on a white horse (triumphal entry #2) wearing a garment “dipped in blood”? Yeah- major Messianic prophecies here.

📻 Breaker breaker – Literary Lacy breaking in for a lil Hebrew moment. You’re going to to read “ben” a lot, like “Messiah ben David.” Ben isn’t short for Benjamin. It’s not a middle name. It means son-of. Like Leif Erickson was the son-of Eric the Red. So he was called Eric-son. If he had been a Hebrew he would’ve been called Leif ben Eric. Ok. Y’all keep it between the lines out there. Watch for smokies and plain brown wrappers. This is Literary Lacy over and out.

😎

Most biblically literate Christians are familiar with Christ as the Lion of the tribe of Judah and Messiah the Son of David- Messiah ben David.

But did you know that for centuries, before and after Christ, the Jewish rabbis wrote about (and carefully kept secret from Christians!!) a Messiah ben Joseph, the firstborn ox who is also an aurochs?!

I didn’t either.

Let me summarize some information from the book, Messiah ben Joseph by David C. Mitchell. (Highly recommend. Not a casual read. Pretty scholarly, but so good!) Get your thinking cap on and focus. Massive info dump incoming in 3…2…1…🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚

Insert unloading dock sounds:

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

🤌🏼 “Bring ‘er on back a little more, Joe.”

✊🏼 “That’ll do.”

Chhh shhhhhhh…

(Work zone. Hard hat required.) 🚧👷🏽‍♂️

Oh- and also you’ll be expected to hold on to a few dozen ideas at once. I’m gonna hand em to ya one at a time like balls of yarn. Ok?

Wait. What? Balls of yarn? Hard hat? What kind of work site is this?

See that cement truck over there? I’m mixing my metaphors. Ready?

😏 Challenge accepted.

Let’s start with Jacob’s prophecy:

“Joseph is the bough of a fruitful vine, a fruitful bough by a spring. His branches climb over the wall. The archers fiercely attacked him. They shot arrows at him and were hostile to him. But his bow remained in a steady position; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From there is the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel. Because of the God of your father he will help you and by Shaddai he will bless you with the blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and the womb. The blessings of your father are superior to the blessings of my ancestors, to the bounty of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the forehead of the prince of his brothers.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭49‬:‭22‬-‭26‬ ‭LEB‬‬

🧶 Remember, this isn’t about Joseph’s past. It’s about his descendants’ future. It’s not about Joseph’s hard times. It’s about what his hard times are a future picture of.

🧶 The Shepherd-Rock of Israel is to come “from there.” From where? From “the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.” Whoever this Shepherd-Rock is, it’s someone sent, not just by God, but from God. And this Rock will shepherd (guard, tend, guide) Israel.

🧶 Remember how the name Israel means “one who has the power to face the strong Shepherd?” Shepherd-Rock is another way to say Strong/Mighty Shepherd. And shepherd was a familiar term for a king in the ancient world; even a divine king.

🧶 Like Judah’s promised “Shiloh” who will rule over the nations, Joseph is promised a Shepherd-Rock who will be a king sent from the hands of God Himself. And this king will be a “prince.” In the KJV it is rendered “him that was separate.” The Hebrew word is naziyr (naw-zeer). This is the first time this word appears in the Bible. In most other places it is translated “Nazarite.” Nazarites were separated to God. The most famous Nazarite in the OT was Sampson. Nazarites were famous for not cutting their hair. The word naziyr also infers an unpruned vine (get it- like a dude that doesn’t cut his hair?) Joseph is a fruitful vine whose branches reach over a wall. There is a whole tangle 🧶 of ideas here. And of course, there’s a play on words between Nazarite and Nazaret (the home town of Jesus).

So where does the ox come from? 🐂

For that we’re going to cheat and look ahead into Deuteronomy 33:13-17. This passage is an echo of Jacob blessing his sons before he dies. Before Moses dies, he calls the nation together and blesses each tribe. Here’s what he said to Joseph (Ephraim & Manasseh):

“And of Joseph he said, “Blessed by Yahweh is his land, with the choice things of heaven, with dew, and with the deep lying down beneath, and with the choice things of the fruits of the the sun, and with the choice things of the yield of the seasons, and with the finest things of the ancient mountains, and with the choice things of the eternal hills, and with the choice things of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of the one who dwelt in the bush. Let them come to the head of Joseph, and to the crown of the prince among his brothers. As the firstborn of his ox, majesty belongs to him, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he drives people together, and they are the myriads of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭33‬:‭13‬-‭17‬ ‭LEB‬‬

🧶 First: “ox” and “wild ox” in this passage are NOT some poetic way of speaking about the same bovine. These are two completely different animals. The Hebrew words are: shor and rem. The shor is the domestic ox while the rem was the ancient (and now extinct) aurochs. See my post on Job 38-40 for more information on the aurochs which in the KJV of Job is called a “unicorn.” 🦄

🧶 Now, everyone listening to Moses that day would’ve know this about the shor:

“Every firstling male that is born of your herd and of your flock you shall consecrate to Yahweh your God; you shall not do work with the firstling of your ox, and you shall not shear the firstling of your flock.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭15‬:‭19‬ ‭LEB‬‬

“Only the firstborn of an ox or the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a goat you will not redeem; they are holy. Their blood you will sprinkle over the altar, and their fat you will turn into smoke as an offering made by fire, a fragrance of appeasement for Yahweh.” Numbers‬ ‭18‬:‭17‬ ‭LEB‬‬

To quote from David Mitchell about the shor: “The upside was that it was exempt from the hard labor which was the lot of other oxen… The downside was that it was born under sentence of a violent sacrificial death…”

Strange that Moses would say, “As the firstborn of his ox, majesty belongs to him.” This is prophetic. This descendant of Joseph will be a burden bearer who will be set apart to die. And yet there will be a majesty about him.

🧶 But this descendant is also the rem, the aurochs. Allow me to quote again (extensively) from Mitchell’s book (p.22):

“All were in awe of this monstrous creature. From Neolithic Lascaux to Babylon’s Ishtar Gate, it ramped and roared its way through the iconography of the ancient world. Balaam ben Beor spoke of its splendor (Num. 23:22). Even the Eternal marveled at its truculence (Job 39:9-12). Rabbinic tales of its immense size abound. One tells how the aurochs did not enter the Ark, but only its offspring, for it was too large; another tells how King David found an aurochs asleep in the desert and, thinking it a hill, climbed upon it, and being borne away, vowed to build a temple a hundred cubits high – like its horns – in return for his safety; again, we are told that its horns are larger than those of all beasts, and it is called rem because its horns are ram, that is, ‘high.’ Of course, the rem, unlike cousin shor, did not fear violent death. Few could meddle with it. Nor had it any place in Israel’s sacrificial cult (Lev. 1:2). So there is a total contrast between the firstborn of a shor and a rem. What one is, the other is not. One is lowly and bound to slaughter. The other is sovereign and bound to life.”

Of the mighty horns, Moses says, (and I think the NASB is solid here) “With them he will gore the peoples all at once, to the ends of the earth. And those are the ten thousands of Ephraim, And those are the thousands of Manasseh.” Deuteronomy‬ ‭33‬:‭17‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

(Deep breath. We’re gonna drill down a little more. And I’m summarizing from Mitchell here)

🧶 Moses said that the horns are “the ten thousands of Ephraim” and “the thousands of Manasseh.” But when did they ever “gore the peoples all at once (or all as one) to the ends of the earth?” Who is this really about?

One proposed answer by the rabbis was Joshua. He was a descendant of Joseph through Ephraim (this is why we don’t skip genealogies). And, interestingly, harkening back to Joseph’s dream, the sun and moon did bow to his command (Jos. 10:12-14). Joshua did indeed “gore” the wicked peoples in Canaan but not quite to “the ends of the earth.”

Habakkuk refers to Joshua’s long day and it gives us a hint. Speaking of Yahweh he said,

“Sun and moon stood still in their place; at the light of your arrows they moved about; at the gleam of the flashing of your spear. In fury you marched through the earth; in anger you trampled the nations. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of wickedness, laying bare from the foundation to the top.”
‭‭Habakkuk‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭LEB‬‬

🧶 The name Joshua is a pun. Yeshua was Yahweh’s instrument to bring yeshah. The Hebrew word for salvation is yeshah. In Greek it is Iesous (ee-ay-soos). Jesus. Joshua, the son of Joseph is a picture of Jesus. They even have the same name.

Though not physically descended from Joseph, Jesus is – in office, in function – Messiah ben Joseph.

“And she will give birth to a son, and you will call his name ‘Jesus,’ because he will save his people from their sins.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭1‬:‭21‬ ‭LEB‬‬

The name of the Son of God is “salvation.”

“You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed.”

In Hebrew this literally says: Yesha Mashiah- Jesus Messiah (Greek: Christos).

Joseph’s “Son” will be both shor and rem– the sacrificed firstborn and the fearsome one who gores the people to the ends of the earth all at once. He will be a Yeshua who can command the very celestial bodies and they will obey. He will be meshiach- anointed. He will be a man but must be more than human because His origin will be from the very hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. And though He is slain, He must live. And He will be a naziyr.

Combine all this and we get an incredibly detailed prophetic profile of God’s Messiah.

He will SAVE. Just like Joseph. He will be envied, sold out, falsely accused, and punished though innocent. Just like Joseph. But he will rise from the dead and rule with unquestioned authority. Just like Joseph.

Wow.

Wow wow wow.

The Gospel is ALL OVER the OT, my friend. But it was hidden and made a bit obscure on purpose. The Almighty couldn’t reveal every detail of His plan for the forces of Evil to see. What was mysterious to Jacob and Joseph and Moses and Joshua is now, in retrospect, as clear as the morning light.

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After Jacob finishes giving this amazing prophecy he “drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last.” (Which reminds me of Yoda dying in the Return of the Jedi.) Joseph has him embalmed and the family – in a huge funeral procession – carries his body to the family burial plot in the field of Mamre. Abraham & Sarah are buried there. Isaac and Rebecca. And Jacob is laid to rest next to…Leah. That’s right. Leah. And I find it quite touching.

After the funeral the brothers worry that Joseph will retaliate now that dad is gone. But no. Joseph assures them with these wonderful and still-encouraging words:

“As for you, you planned evil against me, but God planned it for good, in order to do this—to keep many people alive—as it is today.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭50‬:‭20‬ ‭LEB‬‬

The book ends with the death of Joseph at the age of 110 and a sworn promise to take his bones and bury them on his land in Canaan when the Lord leads them back.

And that’s up next in Exodus.

Thanks for hanging in there this whole time.

I know this was a lot, but we didn’t even hit all the things. 😅

You now have enough yarn to make an entire Snuggie 🧶🧶🧶🧶🧶🧶🧶

Oh- and based on what we now know, it wouldn’t be entirely wrong to have a tshirt that says:

“Ask me how Jesus is a unicorn.” 🦄

Or…

🐂 “Bully for Jesus!”

Although…

“Beware the wrath of the coming unicorn” would be quite a conversation starter.