Word of Encouragement (05/04/2022)

Here, we have Jacob’s prayers for Zebulun and Issachar. It seems that Jacob is not going by the birth order of his sons, which would have Dan and Naphtali come next, whom Rachel’s maid Bilhah had borne to Jacob. Also, Issachar was born before Zebulun even though Jacob prays for Zebulun first. And these two were born to Jacob by Leah, too, along with the first four sons. So, Jacob seems to be grouping his sons according to their mothers rather than by their birth order.

Here, we can sense a challenge that Israel as a nation would face. Even though they all had the same father, they came from different mothers. This brought “natural” divisions within the family. We already saw this in Jacob’s prayer for Simeon and Levi. They took charge of avenging the rape of their sister, Dinah, because she was their blood sister, not just a stepsister. Joseph also showed favoritism to his blood brother, Benjamin (Gen. 45:22). And throughout Israel’s history, the tribal rivalry would persist, even after David united all the tribes as a kingdom. It would surface again when the ten northern tribes break away from David’s kingdom, saying, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel” (1 Kings 12:16)!

It is not until David’s greater Son, Jesus Christ, came that this tribal rivalry would be done away with. For He did not come to establish an earthly kingdom like Israel, made up of different tribes born of different mothers; He came to establish the kingdom of heaven, all of whose citizens were made of those, who are all born of the Holy Spirit with God as their heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as their older Brother.

This is why there are so many instances of thanksgiving for other believers in the New Testament (as we saw in our survey of the New Testament prayers). We noted how rare such thanksgiving is in the Old Testament in comparison. This is because, as New Testament believers, we are bound by something far greater than our family bond—the blood of the eternal covenant of the Lamb of God. We were brought into this bond by the self-giving love of Jesus Christ, who was willing to lay down His life for our redemption, which includes our eternal communion with God and our fellow members! And as we are made members of the body of Christ, we are interdependent: we need one another. That is why the basic posture we have toward our fellow saints is not rivalry and suspicion but love and gratitude. Why don’t you take some time this morning to think about your fellow saints and give thanks to God for them?  

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