that "Israel" did this: it was the new man that was acting, not the old man, "Jacob." And "by faith" he blessed both the sons of Joseph. Truly, it was not by sight or reason. What was more unlikely than that these two young Egyptian princes, for this is virtually what they were, should ever forsake Egypt, the land of their birth, and migrate to Canaan! How unlikely, too, that each should become a separate tribe. And how improbable that the younger should be exalted above the elder, both in importance and number, and should become "a multitude of peoples" (48:19). How impossible for him to foresee (by any human deduction) that long centuries afterwards Ephraim should become representative of the kingdom of "Israel," as distinct from "Judah." But he had heard God, rested on His word, and believed in the sure fulfilment of His promise. What a grand display of faith! Nature's eyes might be dim, but faith's vision was sharp: in his bodily weakness the strength of faith was perfected.

After blessing Joseph's sons, Jacob turns to their father and says, "Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers" (48:21). How utterly unlikely this appeared! Joseph was now thoroughly established and settled in Egypt. But no longer is Jacob walking by sight. Firm indeed was his confidence, and with an unshaken faith he grasps firmly the promises of God (that his seed should enter Canaan), and speaks out of a heart filled with assurance.

The final scene (portrayed in Gen. 49) presents a fitting climax, and demonstrates the power of God's grace. The whole family is gathered about the dying patriarch, and one by one he blesses them. All through his earlier and mid life, Jacob was occupied solely with himself; but at the end, he is occupied solely with others! In days gone by, he was mainly concerned with planning about things present; but now (see 49: 1), he has thought for nothing but things future! One word here is deeply instructive: "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord" (49: 18). At the beginning of his life "waiting" was something quite foreign to his nature: instead of waiting for God to secure for him the promised birth right, he sought to obtain it for himself. And so it was, too, in the matter of his wages from Laban. But now the hardest lesson of all has been learned. Grace has now taught him how to wait. He who had begun a good

work in Jacob performed and completed it. In the end grace triumphed. At eveningtide it was light. May God deepen His work of grace in the writer and reader so that we may "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12: 1).

GENESIS 49

We have at last reached the closing scene in Jacob's life. Here and there we have beheld the light of heaven shining on and through our patriarch, but only too often the clouds of earth have obscured it. The struggle between the flesh and the spirit in him was fierce and protracted, but as the end drew near the triumphs of grace, and the faith which overcomes the world, were more and more manifest.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the scene presented to us in Genesis 49. Long years before, God had promised to give the land of Palestine to Abraham and his descendants. This promise had been confirmed to Isaac, and renewed to Jacob. But, up to this time, there had been no visible signs that the promise was about to be made good. Abraham and Isaac had been but "strangers and pilgrims" in Canaan, owing none of it save a burying-ground for their dead, and this they had purchased. Jacob, too, had "dwelt in tabernacles (tents) with Abraham and Isaac." (Hebrews 11: 9.) And now Jacob is dying-dying not in the promised land, but many miles away from it. In a strange country, in Egypt, our partiarch prepares to leave this earthly scene; but despite the feebleness of nature, the vigor of his faith was strikingly manifested.

Jacob summoned to his bedside each of his twelve sons, and proceeded to utter one of the most striking predictions to be found in all the Old Testament. Like most prophecies, this one of our dying patriarch has, at least, a double fulfillment. In its ultimate accomplishment it looks forward to the fortunes of the Twelve Tribes in "the last days" (Genesis 49: 1); that is, it contemplates their several conditions and positions as they will be in the End-time, namely, during the Seventieth Week of Daniel and on into the millennium (cf. Jeremiah 23: 19, 29; Isaiah 2:2 for the "last days" of Israel). Concerning the final fulfillment of Jacob's prophecy we cannot now write; instead, we shall note how strikingly the past history of the descendants of Jacob's twelve sons has corresponded with their father's dying utterance:

"Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. Reuben, thou art

my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defilest thou it; he went up to my couch." (Genesis 49: 2-4.) Three things are here said of Reuben: First, as the first-born son of Jacob, the place of "excellency," the position of dignity, was his natural birthright. Second, this position of preeminency had been forfeited through his sin in defiling his father's bed, and Jacob here foretells that the tribe which is to descend from Reuben "Shalt not excel." Third, Jacob also predicted that this tribe should be "unstable as water,' which is a figurative expression taken from the passing away of water which had dried up like a summer stream. We shall now refer to several passages in the Old Testament which treat of Reuben, showing how the fortunes of this tribe verified the words of the dying patriarch.

Let us turn first to 1 Chronicles v: 1, 2: "Now the sons of Reuben, the first-born of Israel (for he was the firstborn); but, for as much as he defiled his father's bed his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him (viz., of Judah, instead of Reuben as it ought tohave been) came the Chief Ruler (i. e., Christ); but the birthright was Joseph's." In this striking passage the "birthright" refers, of course, to the position of excellency, and this, as Jacob declared it should be, was taken away from Reuben and given to the sons of Joseph (they receiving the double or "first-born's" portion); and Judah, not Reuben, becoming the royal tribe from which Messiah sprang, and thus "prevailing" above his brethren. Verily, then, Reuben did not "excel."

Second, as we trace the fortunes of this tribe through the Old Testament it will be found that in nothing did they "excel." From this tribe came no judge, no king, and no prophet. This tribe (together with Gad) settled down on the wilderness side of the Jordan, saying, "Bring us not over Jordan." (Numbers 32: 5.) From this same scripture it appears that the tribe of Reuben was, even then, but a cattle loving one-"now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle; and when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead,

that, behold, the place was a place for cattle .... came and spoke unto Moses and Eleazar the priest saying.... the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan." (Numbers 32: 1-5.) With this agrees Judges 5:15, 16: "For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart. Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks. For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart." When the land was divided among the tribes in the days of Joshua, the portion allotted to Reuben served, again, to fulfill the prophecy of Jacob-it was the southernmost and smallest on the east of Jordan.

Third, this tribe was to be "unstable as water," it was to dry up like a stream in summer; it was, in other words, to enjoy no numerical superiority. In harmony with this was the prophecy of Moses concerning Reuben-"Let Reuben live, and not die; and (or "but") let his men be few." Note, that at the first numbering of the tribes, Reuben had 46,500 men able to go forth to war (Numbers 1:21), but when next they were numbered they showed a slight decrease 43,730. (Numbers 26: 7.) (Numbers 26: 7.) This is the more noteworthy because most of the other tribes registered an inRemark, too, that Reuben was among those who stood on Mt. Ebal to "curse," not among those who stood on Mt. Gerizim to "bless." (See Deuteronomy 27: 12, 13.) In 1 Chronicles 26: 31, 32, we read: "In the fortieth year of the reign of David they were sought for, and there were found among them mighty men of valor at Jazer of Gilead. And his brethren, men of valor, were two thousand and seven hundred chief fathers, whom king David made rulers over the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, for every matter pertaining to God, and affairs of the king." It is also deeply significant to discover that when Jehovah commenced to inflict His judgments upon Israel we are told, "In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short; and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Arser, which is by the River Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan." (2 Kings 10: 32, 33.) Thus it will be found