Genesis 49:22 - Meaning and Application

Jacob ends with the blessings of his two best-loved sons, Joseph and Benjamin. He speaks of them as he is near the end of his life. The blessing on Joseph is very full and rich.

Joseph is compared to a fruitful bough, or a young tree, because God had made him fruitful in the land of his suffering, and Joseph admitted that himself (Genesis 41:52). His two sons were like branches of a vine or other spreading plant that grows over a wall. God can make fruitful, and a great comfort to himself and others, people who once seemed dry and withered.

More is recorded in Joseph’s story than in the story of any other of Jacob’s sons. So what Jacob says about him is both history and prophecy. It looks back on what God already did, and it points forward to what God would still do.

First, Jacob speaks of God’s dealings with Joseph in Genesis 49:23-24. He mentions these things to honor God and to strengthen Jacob’s own faith and hope. God had blessings stored up for Joseph’s family.

Joseph had many enemies and many troubles, even though he now lived in honor and ease. Jacob reminds him of the hard road he had already walked. Those enemies are called archers, because they were skilled at doing harm and persecuting him. They hated him, and that is where persecution begins. They shot poisonous arrows at him and caused him deep grief.

His brothers, in his father’s house, were bitter against him. They mocked him, stripped him, threatened him, sold him, and thought they had killed him. His mistress in Potiphar’s house, Potiphar being the Egyptian official who owned the house where Joseph served, deeply grieved him too. When she tried to seduce him and failed, she hated him and attacked him with false accusations. Against such arrows, there is little protection except the hold God has on the consciences of even the worst people. Joseph likely also had enemies in Pharaoh’s court who envied his rise and tried to bring him down.

Yet Joseph stood firm through all this. His bow remained strong, which means his faith did not fail. He held his ground and came through as a conqueror. The arms of his hands were made strong, meaning his other graces did their work too, his wisdom, courage, and patience, which are better than weapons of war. He kept both his integrity and his peace through every trial. He bore his burdens with firm resolve, and he did nothing unworthy of himself.

The source of that strength was the hand of the mighty God, who was able to strengthen him, and the God of Jacob, who was in covenant with him and therefore committed to help him. All strength for resisting temptation and bearing affliction comes from God. His grace is enough, and his power is made complete in our weakness.

From that strange way of dealing with Joseph, God raised him up to become the shepherd and stone, the one who fed and supported Israel, that is, Jacob and his family. In this, Joseph pointed forward to Christ. Like Joseph, Christ was hated and attacked, yet he was upheld through suffering (Isaiah 50:7-9), and afterward he was exalted to be the shepherd and stone. Joseph also points to the church and to believers in general. Hell shoots arrows at the saints, but heaven protects and strengthens them, and will crown them in the end.

Jacob then turns to God’s promises to Joseph. These are joined to the earlier story: the God of Jacob, who had helped him, would keep helping him (Genesis 49:25). What God has done for us before gives us reason to trust him still. He who has helped us will help us again, and we may build on our former help from God as on solid stones.

Joseph could expect help from the Almighty, the God of his father. God would help him in the dangers and troubles still ahead, and he would help Joseph’s descendants in their wars. Joshua, who later led Israel in battle, came from this line. God would also bless Joseph, and God is the one who truly gives blessing.

Jacob asks for blessing on Joseph, but it is God who commands the blessing. These blessings are many and rich. They include blessings of heaven above, such as rain in season, fair weather in season, and the good influence of the heavenly bodies. They also include blessings of the deep below, meaning the earth’s hidden springs and mines. Spiritual blessings are the blessings from above, and we should desire them first. Earthly blessings must be lower in our value and esteem.

The blessings of the womb and the breasts are given when children are safely born and nourished. In the word of God, by which we are born again and fed as new life grows in us (1 Peter 1:23; 1 Peter 2:2), there are also blessings of the womb and the breasts for the new person.

These are also striking and greater blessings, surpassing those of Jacob’s ancestors in some ways (Genesis 49:26). Isaac had only one blessing to give, and after giving it to Jacob, he had none left for Esau. But Jacob had a blessing for each of his twelve sons, and at the end a very rich one for Joseph. The main family blessing was increase, and this increased much more clearly and quickly after Jacob’s blessing than after Abraham’s or Isaac’s. Soon after Jacob’s death, the family multiplied greatly.

These are also lasting and far-reaching blessings, reaching to the farthest bounds of the everlasting hills, including all the produce of the most fruitful hills and lasting as long as those hills last (Isaiah 54:10). The blessings of the everlasting God include the riches of the everlasting hills, and much more. So these blessings will rest on Joseph’s head like a crown to honor him and a helmet to protect him.

Joseph had been separated from his brothers for a time. Some read this as meaning he was set apart among them, like a Nazarite, a person set apart for God, better and more excellent than they were. It is nothing new for the best people to be treated the worst, or for such set-apart people among their brothers to be cast out and separated from them. But God’s blessing makes up for all that.

The blessing of Benjamin (Genesis 49:27) says that he would “raven as a wolf.” This makes it clear that Jacob was speaking by the Spirit of prophecy, not simply out of natural affection. If he had only been thinking as a loving father, he would likely have spoken more tenderly about Benjamin, his beloved son. Instead, he foretells that Benjamin’s descendants would become a warlike tribe, strong and bold, and that they would gain wealth from their enemies’ spoils.

He says they would be active and busy in the world, and feared by the nations around them. “In the morning, he shall devour the prey,” means they would seize and divide the spoil early, or in the first days of Israel, they would be known for their energy, though many of them were left-handed (Judges 3:15; Judges 20:16). Ehud, the second judge, and Saul, Israel’s first king, were from this tribe. So were Esther and Mordecai in later times, and through them the Jews’ enemies were destroyed.

The Benjamites acted like wolves when they stubbornly defended the men of Gibeah, those wicked men, in Judges 20:14. The apostle Paul was also from this tribe (Romans 11:1; Philippians 3:5). In the morning of his life, he devoured the prey as a persecutor. In the evening, he divided the spoil as a preacher.

We should note that God can use the different temperaments of people to accomplish his own purposes. The one who is deceived and the one who deceives are both under his rule.