Genesis 49: 1-4: “And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, 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 defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.”
Jacob wanted to instil a sense of the future and the Lord’s faithfulness into his sons. He knew that God had been with him all the days of his life and he wanted his family to have that same sense of security. The Lord promised Jacob certain things and the Lord kept all those promises. Reuben was born into a jealous home where the two sisters were competing for their husband’s love. His mother was unloved and thought that she would gain some respect when he was born, however this was not the case and the hope that came with his conception was soon lost in bitterness. When the Law was given, much later, it has special provisions for the child of an unloved wife (see Deut 21: 15-17, “If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated: Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn: But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.”) Reuben, however, didn’t look to the Lord for his security and tried to find security in another way. Reuben made choices, like his uncle Esau, and had to live with the fruit of those choices. He was a man with great potential but was ruled by his own selfish impulses and suffered for that.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
No comments:
Post a Comment