Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/255

Rh, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. 3. Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. 4. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

Here is,

I. The preface to the prophecy, in which,

1. The congregation is called together; (v. 2.) Gather yourselves together, let them all be sent for from their several employments, to see their father die, and to hear his dying words. It was a comfort to Jacob, now that he was dying, to see all his children about him, and none missing, though he had sometimes thought himself bereaved. It was of use to them, to attend him in his last moments, that they might learn of him how to die, as well as how to live: what he said to each, he said in the hearing of all the rest; for we may profit by the reproofs, counsels, and comforts, that are principally intended for others. His calling upon them once and again, to gather together, intimated both a precept to them to unite in love, to keep together, not to mingle with the Egyptians, not to forsake the assembling of themselves together, and a prediction that they should not be separated from each other, as Abraham's sons and Isaac's were, but should be incorporated, and all make one people. 2. A general idea is given of the intended discourse, (v. l.) That I may tell you that which shall befall you, (not your persons, but your posterity,) in the last days; this prediction would be of use to those that came after them, for the confirming of their faith, and the guiding of their way, on their return to Canaan, and their settlement there. We cannot tell our children what shall befall them, or their families in this world; but we can tell them, from the word of God, what will befall them in the last day of all, according as they conduct themselves in this world. 3. Attention is demanded; (v. 2.) "Hearken to Israel your father; let Israel, that has prevailed with God, prevail with you." Note, Children must diligently hearken to what their godly parents say, particularly when they are dying; Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, which carries with it both authority and affection, Prov. 4. 1.

II. The prophecy concerning Reuben; he begins with him, (v. 3, 4.) he was the first-born; but by committing uncleanness with his father's wife, to the great reproach of the family which he ought to have been an ornament to, he forfeited the prerogatives of the birth-right; and his dying father here solemnly degrades him, though he does not disown or disinherit him: he shall have all the privileges of a son, but not of a first-born. We have reason to think Reuben had repented of his sin, and it was pardoned; yet it was a necessary piece of justice, in detestation of the villany, and for warning to others, to put the mark of disgrace upon him. Now according to the method of degrading, 1. Jacob here puts upon him the ornaments of the birth-right, (v. 3.) that he and all his brethren might see what he had forfeited, and, in that, might see the evil of the sin: as the first-born, he was his father's joy, almost his pride, being the beginning of his strength. How welcome he was to his parents, his name bespeaks, Reuben, See a son. To him belonged the excellency of his dignity, above his brethren, and some power over them. Christ Jesus is the First-born among many brethren, and to him, of right, belong the most excellent power and dignity: his church also, through him, is a church of the first-born. 2. He then strips him of these ornaments; (v. 4.) lifts him up, that he may cast him down, by that one word, "Thou shalt not excel; a being thou shalt have as a tribe, but not an excellency:" no judge, prophet, or prince, is found of that tribe, nor any person of renown, only Dathan and Abiram, who were noted for their impious rebellion against Moses. That tribe, as not aiming to excel, meanly chose a settlement on the other side Jordan. Reuben himself seems to have lost all that influence upon his brethren, which his birth-right entitled him to; for when he spake unto them, they would not hear, ch. 42. 22. Those that have not understanding and spirit to support the honours and privileges of their birth, will soon lose them, and retain only the name of them. The character fastened upon Reuben, for which he is laid under this mark of infamy, is, that he was unstable as water. (1.) His virtue was unstable; he had not the government of himself and his own appetites: some times he would be very regular and orderly, but at other times he deviated into the wildest courses. Note, Instability is the ruin of men's excellency. Men do not thrive, because they do not fix. (2.) His honour consequently was unstable; it departed from him, vanished into smoke, and became as water spilt upon the ground. Note, Those that throw away their virtue, must not expect to save their reputation. Jacob charges him particularly with the sin for which he was thus disgraced; Thou wentest up to thy father's bed. It was forty years ago that he had been guilty of this sin, yet now it is remembered against him. Note, As time will not of itself wear off the guilt of any sin from the conscience, so there are some sins whose stains it will not wipe off from the good name, especially seventh-commandment-sins. Reuben's sin left an indelible mark of infamy upon his family; a dishonour that was a wound not to be healed without a scar, Prov. 6. 32, 33. Let us never do evil, and then we need not fear being told of it.

5. Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. 6. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. 7. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

These were next in age to Reuben, and they also had been a grief and shame to Jacob, when they treacherously and barbarously destroyed the Shechemites, which he here remembers against them. Children should be afraid of incurring their parents' just displeasure, lest they fare the worse for it long afterward, and, when they would inherit the blessing, be rejected.

Observe,

I. The character of Simeon and Levi; they were brethren in disposition; but, unlike their father, they were passionate and revengeful, fierce and uncontrollable; their swords, which should have been only weapons of defence, were (as the margin reads it, v. 5.) weapons of violence, to do wrong to others, not to save themselves from wrong. Note, It is no new thing for the temper of children to differ very much from that of their parents; we need not think it strange, it was so in Jacob's family. It. is not in the power of parents, no, not by education, to form the dispositions of their children; Jacob bred his sons to