11. (22-26) Joseph: A fruitful bough.
“Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a well;
His branches run over the wall.
The archers have bitterly grieved him,
Shot at him and hated him.
But his bow remained in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong
By the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob
(From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),
By the God of your father who will help you,
And by the Almighty who will bless you
With blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
The blessings of your father
Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors,
Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
They shall be on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from
his brothers.”
a. Joseph
is a fruitful bough: This was both a description of Joseph’s life
and a personal blessing concerning his descendants. In a sense, Joseph’s tribes
were already blessed when his sons received their blessing in Genesis 48.
b. The
archers have bitterly grieved him: Though Joseph was shot at and hated,
he was still a fruitful bough. This was
because the arms of his hands were made strong by
the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob. The idea is that God’s hands
were on Joseph’s hands, giving him strength and skill to work the bow expertly.
God was there, even when Joseph did not know it.
c. The
Almighty who will bless you: Joseph was certainly blessed in his
posterity. His tribes were some of the most populous. In this sense, he received
the material blessing, the double portion aspect of the inheritance of
the firstborn.
d. The
blessings of your father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors:
Jacob could say this because he was, for much of his life, a scoundrel. Now at
the end of his days, he saw just how good God was to him. He was forgiven much
and loved much (Luke 7:47).
e. The
Mighty God of Jacob: In his words about Joseph, Jacob listed five
great titles for God. These titles show that Jacob did come to an understanding
of who God is.
·
The Mighty God of Jacob
·
The Shepherd
·
The Stone of Israel
·
The God of your father
·
The Almighty
i. This is much better than when
Jacob referred to God as the God of Abraham or the Fear of his father
Isaac (Genesis 31:53). Now he knows who God is for himself.
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