Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/259

Rh he kept his ground, and came off a conqueror. The arms of his hands were made strong, that is, his other graces did their part, his wisdom, courage, and patience, which are better than weapons of war, In short, he maintained both his integrity and his comfort through all his trials; he bore all his burdens with an invincible resolution, and did not sink under them nor do any thing unbecoming him. (3.) The spring and fountain of this strength; it was by the hands of the mighty God, who was therefore able to strengthen him, and the God of Jacob, a God in covenant with him, and therefore engaged to help him. All our strength for the resisting of temptations, and the bearing of afflictions, comes from God: his grace is sufficient, and his strength is perfected in our weakness. (4.) The state of honour and usefulness he was advanced to after this; from thence, from this strange method of providence, he became the shepherd and stone, the feeder and supporter, of God's Israel, Jacob and his family. Herein Joseph was a type, [1.] Of Christ; he was shot at and hated, but borne up under his sufferings, (Isa. 50. 7..9.) and was afterward advanced to be the shepherd and stone. [2.] Of the church in general, and particular believers; hell shoots its arrows against the saints, but Heaven protects and strengthens them, and will crown them.

2. The promises of God to Joseph. See how these are connected with the former! (v. 25.) Even by the God of thy father Jacob, who shall help thee. Note, Our experiences of God's power and goodness in strengthening us hitherto, are our encouragements still to hope for help from him; he that has helped us will: we may build much upon our Eben-Ezers. See what Joseph may expect from the Almighty, even the God of his father. (1.) He shall help thee in difficulties and dangers which may yet be before thee, help thy seed in their wars. Joshua came from him, who commanded in chief in the wars of Canaan. (2.) He shall bless thee; and he only blesses indeed. Jacob prays for a blessing upon Joseph, but the God of Jacob commands the blessing. Observe the blessings conferred on Joseph; [1.] Various and abundant blessings. Blessings of heaven above; rain in its season, and fair weather in its season, and the benign influences of the heavenly bodies; blessings of the deep that lieth under this earth, which, compared with the upper world, is but a great deep, with subterraneous mines and springs. Spiritual blessings are blessings of heaven above, which we ought to desire and seek for, in the first place, and to which we must give the preference, while temporal blessings, those of this earth, must lie under in our account and esteem. Blessings of the womb and the breasts are given, when children are safely born; and comfortably nursed. In the word of God, by which we are born again, and nourished up, (1 Pet 1. 23.—2.2.) there are to the new man blessings both of the womb and the breasts. [2.] Eminent and transcendent blessings, which prevail above the blessings of thy progenitors, v. 26. His father Isaac had but one blessing, and when he had given that to Jacob, he was at a loss for a blessing to bestow upon Esau; but Jacob had a blessing for each of his twelve sons, and now, at the latter end, a copious one for Joseph. The great blessing entailed upon that family was increase, which did not so immediately and so signally follow the blessings which Abraham and Isaac gave to their sons, as it followed the blessing which Jacob gave to his; for, soon after his death, they multiplied exceedingly. [3.] Durable and extensive blessings; unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills, including all the productions of the most fruitful hills, and lasting as long as they last, Isa. 54. 10. Note, The blessings of the everlasting God include the riches of the everlasting hills, and much more. Well, of these blessings it is here said, They shall be, so it is a promise, or, Let them be, so it is a prayer, on the head of Joseph; to which let them be as a crown to adorn it, and a helmet to protect it. Joseph was separated from his brethren, (so we read it,) for a time; yet, as others read it, he was a Nazarite among his brethren, better and more excellent than they. Note, It is no new thing for the best men to meet with the worst usage; for Nazarites among their brethren to be cast out and separated from their brethren; but the blessing of God will make it up to them.

II. The blessing of Benjamin; (v. 27.) He shall raven as a wolf; it is plain by this, that Jacob was guided in what he said, by a spirit of prophecy, and not by natural affection; else he would have spoken with more tenderness of his beloved son Benjamin, concerning whom he only foresees and foretells this, that his posterity should be a warlike tribe, strong and daring, and that they should enrich themselves with the spoils of their enemies; that they should be active and busy in the world, and a tribe as much feared by their neighbours as any other; in the morning he shall devour the prey, which he seized and divided over-night. Or, in the first times of Israel, they shall be noted for activity, though many of them left-handed, Judg. 3. 15.—20. 16. Ehud, the second judge, and Saul, the first king, were of this tribe, and so also in the last times Esther and Mordecai were of this tribe, by whom the enemies of the Jews were destroyed. The Benjamites ravened like wolves, when they desperately espoused the cause of the men of Gibeah, those men of Belial, Judg. 20. 14. Blessed Paul was of this tribe, (Rom. 11. 1. Phil. 3. 5.) and he did in the morning of that day, devour the prey as a persecutor, but in the evening, divide the spoil as a preacher. Note, God can serve his own purposes by the different tempers of men; the deceived and the deceiver are his.

28. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. 29. And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30. In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. 31. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32. The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein, was from the children of Heth. 33. And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

Here is,

1. The summing up of the blessings of Jacob's sons, v. 28. Though Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, were put under the marks of their father's displeasure, yet he is said to bless them every one according to his blessing; for none of them were rejected as Esau was. Note, Whatever rebukes of God's word or providence we are under at any time, yet, as long