Try to put yourself into Moses shoes here. His first presentation with Pharaoh doesn’t go very well—just as Moses had told God it wouldn’t. His confidence is even lower now than it was before. Yet God does not change His mind about his call on Moses and Aaron.
More than just a list of names, these blessings from Ya’akov/Yisrael are prophesies that will be fulfilled in the last days and give us insight into the mission of the Messiah. For Issachar, it’s a blessing rather than a curse.
Many people who read Genesis 49 believe that the prophesies Israel gave to his 12 sons were only about their or their immediate descendants. This is not the case. These prophesies encompass our prophetic future and those of our descendants all the way to the very end of time.
Today’s talk focuses on the prophesies given to Israel’s first four sons, culminating with his fourth son, Yehudah (Judah). All 4 of these sons were sons of Leah, the daughter of Laban as well, which gives us an additional insight as well.
Ya’akov’s family finally ran out of Egyptian grain and had little choice but to return to Egypt to get more. The 10 brothers had a duty to fulfill beyond their father’s call to get more grain: get Simeon released from prison. Ben-Yamin (Benjamin) was the only key to obtain that release, but Ya’akov (Jacob) did not want to let him go. Once Ya’akov acquiesced, the 10 brothers went to Egypt. Yosef (Joseph) celebrated their arrival with a feast rather than another interrogation. “The man” was full of surprises.
Yosef’s (Joseph) scheme to discover how his brothers really felt about Benjamin (and by extension, himself) came to a head. The “revealer of what is concealed” forced his brothers to reveal their own secrets, not only to him but to their father.
The tables are starting to turn against Yosef’s brothers. God, through Yosef (Joseph), is revealing their sin against Yosef and they are confronted with their unrighteousness and start the process of repentence.
Ya’akov (Jacob) is sent away to find a wife and finds God first at the bottom of a ladder to Heaven. Then he finds Rachel and ends up with her sister and two slave women. There seems to be something prophetic about Rachel.