The blessings Yisra’el (Israel), f.k.a. Ya’akob (Jacob), game his sons in Genesis 49 seem cryptic, because events are described that didn’t happen in the sons’ lives. Then we notice that these are prophecies for the end of history and about the Messiah. In this part of the study, covering Gen. 49:1–12, we encounter the messianic name Shiloh.
The list of the names of the offspring of Yisrael, f.k.a. Ya’akob (Jacob), can be read as a message about the work of the Messiah if the meanings of the names are strung together.
In Genesis 43, Yosef (Joseph) hosted a large banquet for his brothers and household staff. At the time of the account in Genesis 44, Yosef was still hidden from his brothers. He is the second in command of Mitsraim (Egypt), one of the world’s most powerful nations of the period. This account of the actions of Pharaoh and Yosef is a parable of what the Father and the Son planned to do to and through a group of believers in God, a group called Israel.
Yeshua (Jesus) kept the festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles), but the only record of that is His keeping the latter part of it (John 6:26-7:41). During the Feast of Tabernacles, the people were looking for the Prophet like Moshe (Moses), but did they recognize the Prophet? Do we recognize the Prophet when we memorialize the past, present and future of God “tabernacling” with mankind?
There is so much emphasis in Luke 19:29-40 about Yeshua’s riding into Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) on a donkey that had never carried a burden and about the proclamation, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.” That donkey’s first burden was a profound burden, and we see throughout Scripture a number of donkeys carrying important burdens that prophetically point toward that triumphal entry.
When the brothers of Yosef (Joseph) came to Mitsraim (Egypt), even the second time, they did not recognize him at all. He was concealed from them behind a new name, Zaphenath-paneakh, and new appearance, shaved and in garb of his office.
Similarly, Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah is known as Jesus Christ the Church-maker in the Gentile world, and He is hidden from the rest of the descendants of Israel.
Messianic figures in the Bible aren’t one-to-one representations of the Messiah, but the messianic figures of the pharaoh of Mitsraim (Egypt) and Yosef (Joseph) do give us a glimpse of the relationship between the Father and the Messiah.