In the sermon 'Let Them Live and Not Die,' Scott Brown underscores the immeasurable power and significance of the Word of God, likening it to a sharp two-edged sword that guides, convicts, and provides hope. Brown explores Deuteronomy 33, focusing on Moses' final blessings to the tribes of Israel, which serve as a mix of blessings, prayers, prophecies, and admonitions. He emphasizes the enduring relevance of these tribes to modern Christians, as they serve as examples to avoid pitfalls of sin and idolatry. The sermon details Moses' blessings to each tribe, drawing parallels to contemporary life, such as the moral lessons from Reuben and the prayers for victory for Judah. Brown discusses the roles and prayers for each tribe, from Levi's biblical education and integrity to the prosperity of Joseph and the justice-seeking nature of Gad. He urges the congregation to reflect on their own lives, recognize God’s desires for His people, and engage in prayer, acknowledging that Jesus intercedes for believers today as Moses did for the Israelites.

It's awfully hard to underestimate the power of the Word of God. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. It's our hope. It's the way that God leads His people. It's the way that He convicts us and helps us.

A miracle happens at the preaching of the Word of God. It has to be a miracle because it happens by sinful, short-sighted men who have all kinds of gaps and understanding and spiritual life. And yet God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wisdom of the wise. So please open in your Bibles, if you're not already there, to Deuteronomy 33. I trust that God would use this text to help us understand our own lives, understand our families, understand the families of the earth, and whatever else he might have to help us with this morning as he reveals by his spirit what's true and what's needful in our lives.

So Here in chapter 33 is contained Moses' final words to the children of Israel before he begins to make his long walk to Mount Pisgah, which we will speak about next week. Moses has gathered the tribes of Israel together to hear these last words, which are blessings, they're prayers, they're prophecies, they're admonitions, there are a number of things kind of all rolled in together. He has already in the first five verses of chapter 33 reminded us of the great love of God. We read, yes, He loves His people. Yes, He loves his people.

And he speaks in this first section of the blessings of the law that from Mount Sinai it was dawned upon them and out came a fiery law, it was a law of love, that the people were blessed by being in His hand. He says, all His saints are in Your hand. And the blessings of sitting at His feet, they sit down at Your feet. Everyone receives your word, literally stuck to the feet, the blessings of a heritage that Moses commanded a law for us that was a heritage. And so after Moses delivers these beautiful explanations of the depth and the breath of the love of God and how he blesses his people.

He now turns to the twelve tribes, well actually there are eleven tribes that he deals with here And he reminds of a number of things here. And he not only sees the whole gathered body of people, He also sees the individual families. He also has compassion and mercy on the various families of Israel and how their histories have played out and how they will play out. And Moses' concern is God's concern as well. Moses was aware of their peculiarities as families.

He was aware of their virtues. He was aware of their sins because he was on site when a number of them were committed. And he's like the high priest who carries their names in his heart. And so there are families here that he's actually praying for. This is a scene that's much like a scene that has taken place in your own life where you're praying for various families.

There's enormous significance to what happens in a family. And Moses understands that and so he's praying for these families. He understands the blessing of Abraham where God says to Abraham, in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So here Moses takes on this understanding of the way that God has ordered the world by setting families in the world and that he has established ways for them to operate so that they would glorify him. Now, to learn about these tribes or these families, there are a number of places you can go in Scripture.

You can go to Genesis 30 where the names of the sons born to Rachel and Leah are given and the various conditions that surround their birth. You can learn something about these tribes from the time of their birth, actually. You can go to Genesis chapter 49 and see Jacob's blessing on the tribes of Israel as he gives prophetic words to them. Or you can come here to Deuteronomy 33 and get more information. You can go to Revelation chapter 7, where there's an appearance of the twelve tribes at the end of the age.

And then beyond that, there's so many other places you can go to learn about these tribes, and they show up in narratives all over Scripture and so there's a lot to learn there. There's a lot to know about the tribes, far more than we can cover here. It's a vast subject And as we go through these here this morning, I want you to know that I'm going to try to keep the knowledge of these tribes to the text, but yet drawing upon some other things that seem to be implied here as well. I also noticed that there's a difference in the way that Jacob blesses the tribes of Israel and the way that Moses deals with the tribes of Israel. Jacob's blessings are primarily predictive and Jacob says gather together that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last day so Jacob's Jacob's words are predictive what will befall you so there's he speaks in a different way well while Moses blessings are really focused more on intercession, he's crying out for the people of God much more than he is predicting their fate.

I'd like to also, you know, before we jump into this, to try to calibrate for a moment about why these tribes are possibly important to us. I mean aren't they the, aren't there, aren't there the ten lost tribes of Israel? They're gone? What's the meaning of these tribes for me? Does this help me at all?

After all, I'm not part of Israel. There are a number of thoughts that could come to our minds to deal with this. But to help us understand the importance of this, I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 10 and here you will find the importance of these tribes for us here today as a church. 1st Corinthians 10 Verse 1 says, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink.

For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." And then in verse 6 we learn of the importance of these tribes and what happened in the context that Moses is dealing with here. Verse 6. These things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted.

So these tribes and all the things surrounding them have been given to us as examples so that we don't fall into the same traps. So they are relevant to us. They teach us about the various lusts and sins that are before us. We learn in verse 7 that they are there to keep us from idolatry and do not become idolaters as some of them. And then Paul, the apostle, gives several examples.

The first example is at the foot of Mount Sinai, where he says, As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And then he gives an example in verse 8 of sexual immorality and the judgment that God brought about on the people for that sexual immorality and the seriousness of it for their tempting Christ in verse 9 for their complaining in verse 10 and then in verse 11 is a summary of the importance of the experiences that we see here laid before us. Now all of these things happen to them as examples and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come." And then in verse 12, again, he expands our understanding of why we should study the situation in these tribes. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man.

But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry." Okay, so These things are here for us, and they are for us, to help us understand what idolatry looks like in our own hearts, to repent of it, and turn away from it. And also, these things are there to instruct us that we can turn away from idolatry, that no temptation has overtaken us, but that which is common to man and has been engaged before. And there can be victory. So that's why these things are here.

And that's why we need to understand them. And I'll just have to acknowledge, These are very complex, they are incredibly broad, and some of Moses' summary phrases are hard to understand because they track to this and that in another situation, and perhaps situations that aren't even recorded in scripture because he's speaking them as blessings to the children of Israel. I'm not sure we can get to the bottom of them, but we can at least get to the top of them and that will be enough for us, I think. So these prayers are for you, these prayers are for me, And I just want to establish that. And then further, in terms of interpreting this, here are a few questions that I hope that you'll be asking as we move through these things.

We're going to move tribe by tribe. And I just want to throw out some questions. You might want to write them down. First of all, what are God's desires for His people, as are implied in this prayer? What are God's desires for His people?

Another question, what do I learn about God? Another question, how do I need to better enter into the blessings that are defined here? God defines things that are blessings. And there are things that I am confident, many of us will say, oh, I fall so short in that area. I need to be more like Dan.

I need to be more like the blessing of Gad. And we'll get to that. But what do I need to better enter into these blessings? Or You might ask this, how am I like this family or this tribe, both positively and negatively? Are there sins in this tribe that are in your family that need to be abandoned?

And then another question, what help is this tribe to my own journey before God? So these are a number of sort of interpretive questions that I think that we can ask. We have to understand the importance of this to us today though, that these things are here to help us identify idolatry to teach us that we can turn away from sin and have victory. Okay, Reuben, verse 6. And what I've done here in the outline, as you can see, is that I've tried to capsulize at least what seems to be thematic in each one.

And I want to recognize that it was hard to jam everything into a short phrase. But at least it gets some of it. So Reuben, let Reuben live and not die, nor let his men be few. So Moses is praying a prayer for the survival of Reuben. And right off the bat there's kind of an interpretive challenge in the text with the word, nor.

Is the word, should the word, The King James reads, nor let his men be few. Other versions say, let his men be few. And so it represents two alternatives in the text. Either he will be few or he won't be few is really the subject on the table. My opinion is that the most consistent reading based on the context, based on what we learned from Jacob in his words, is that this should be read, let his men be few.

It fits best with the context. If you go to Genesis 49, you'll see that that really is the force of what Jacob is saying and so I take the side of the interpretation being, let his men be few. This tribe would survive, but the tribe wouldn't thrive. And the problem in this family was that they were as Jacob said unstable as water and this inherent instability in the family was it's Achilles heel. Families have instabilities they have Achilles heels.

This family had a particular and what was Ruben's sin that caused this restraint upon his prosperity? Well, Ruben was the firstborn son of Leah, and his sin is recorded in Genesis 35 verse 22 he went in and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine his was a sin of licentiousness and of immorality His eyes got the best of him and he illustrates the life and death consequences of immorality in a family, in a man's life. There is life in obedience and there is death in disobedience and you know this is perhaps why you know no great leader ever emerged from Ruben. The tribe participated in the rebellion of Korah and Dathan and Nibiram. They accused Moses and Aaron of making too much of themselves and were judged for it.

The Song of Deborah exposes the attitude of the tribe of Reuben that he loved idleness. He wanted rest and peace, and he also wanted to satisfy his immoral urges. And Judges 15 records that God allowed Moab to harm this tribe. But Moses' declaration is both one of hope that he would not be destroyed. But he's acknowledging that some, some because of their sins will just survive.

And that's why, that's why Jacob says, thou shalt not excel, Thou shalt not excel. And so Moses says, let Reuben live and not die. Let his men be few. It's a little bit like the punishment of Cain in Genesis 4, where God says, when you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. There's a restraint upon him.

It's like what the Apostle Paul was speaking about to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. He says, oh Corinthians, we've spoken openly to you. Our heart is open wide. You are not restricted by us. You are restricted by your own affections.

That's what happened to Reuben. And Reuben was in decline through moral weakness. And I think that's what we understand from here. So this is a prayer for survival, though he's reaping consequences of moral failures. This last week in Proverbs chapter 5, I was reading about the immoral woman she's as bitter as a wormwood her feet go down to death her steps lay hold of hell her ways are unstable you give your years to the cruel one when you give your your years to her And then there's the testimony of those, which I think is probably somewhat like the testimony of Reuben, where in this proverb we read, I was on the verge of total ruin in the midst of the assembly and the congregation.

And then the admonition, drink water from your own cistern. And you know, this is a whole family's productivity is drained because of spending on pleasures. And it does have to do with men and women who look at things that they should not be looking at. It has to do with spending time on things you should not be spending your time on. Why do you labor for that which is not bread?

It's kind of the whole idea here. Ruben's energies were diverted instead of drinking water from his own cistern and out of his innermost being flowing rivers of living water. Instead of that, his rivers were diverted into backwater. And his productivity was drained because of his affections. This is the danger of immorality.

This is the danger of our times here in the kind of world that we live in where immoral images are so available to everyone. Let me just say, brothers and sisters, if anyone is involved in this, repent and flee and begin to sow in righteousness. Kill the dragon. You can weaken that dragon by stopping the feeding of him. And here we find a tribe that was seriously harmed.

I mean, the consequences of moral sin are absolutely enormous. People today, particularly in our political realm, consequences of Moral sin are are absolutely enormous people, you know people today particularly are in our political Realm want to so minimize things that are immoral like homosexuality you realize that only two percent of homosexual men Get to even get to the age of age 62. It's because there is a curse upon those who engage in immoral activity, from the clicking on the wrong button on your computer to homosexuality. So I just want to say that this should be a warning for all families on how they handle their eyes and how they handle their affections, that they would spend their energies on the things that would make them strong instead of weaken them, instead of make them not excel as it was with Reuben. Spurgeon commenting on this tribe said this, He captures the hope of the prayer that's here.

Happy is that man who though he begins with a dark shadow resting upon him, so live as to turn even that shadow into bright sunlight. And that's the hope of this prayer, to turn, to turn from the things that caused Reuben to fail. And then we come to the next tribe after Reuben's prayer is really for survival though reaping consequences of sin. We come to Judah for prayers to be heard and the people helped to victory over their enemies. Verse 7, And this he said of Judah, Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people.

Let his hands be sufficient for him, And may you be a help against his enemies. So the core of this prayer is for intimacy with God and the strength of it that issues out in victory, in military victories, most likely. He goes out to battle. He cries out to God. God hears his voice.

His strength is sufficient and he prevails. It's that kind of prayer. Notice there are four things at least here to identify. There's a prayer for God to hear him. Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah.

And then the prayer to bring him to his people, which could imply a people from every tongue and tribe and nation, which the Messiah would accomplish. We understand the legacy of the tribe of Judah, that Judah is not prominent yet, but will be later. And it's a prayer for adequacy. Let his hands be sufficient for him. And it's a prayer of help against his enemies.

And may you be a help against his enemies. And when the Lord blesses you, often you have enemies coming out against you. One way, and they're scattered seven ways. That's sort of the idea here. Luther suggests that Judah's victory here would be brought to him not by the sword, but through prayer.

And What we find here of this tribe is that in God's perfect timing, the tribe flourishes. It would not be for another 400 years that this tribe would enter into prominence. At the time of this prayer, Levi is the prominent tribe. But in 400 years, David will assume the throne, and out of his line will be the provision of sufficient salvation, protection against enemies. The Messiah will come.

The scepter will not depart from him, but it will come in due time, 400 years later. So the kingship would pass to Judah. There are prayers of David, There are many prayers that I think really correlate to this. I think Psalm 20 is a good cross reference to this and we really can't go into any depth, but here's a prayer that God would hear the prayers of the King and that the King would prevail. We see the same thing in 2 Chronicles 13, verses 14 and 15, where God hears the prayers.

And then Jesus also acknowledges that God always hears his prayers. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. And you know this is a This is a prayer that prayers would be heard and then would be acted on by God and that God would destroy the enemies. Jacob said in Genesis 49, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. So it's that kind of victory that he's talking about.

So the messianic themes are there and I believe while many commentators say, they sort of question, there doesn't seem to be any messianic flavor to this. I don't actually believe that's true. I think there's lots of Messianic flavor to this because we have King Jesus who rules and reigns and he does put his foot on his enemies. He does prevail and his sword does prevail. So I do think it is messianic, but here in this prayer, they are for prayers to be heard and people helped to victory over enemies.

Now how does that work for you and I? I mean, we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is praying for us. We know that God has called for us to pray for all the saints. And how important it is for us to engage in a life of prayer and that our prayers prevail. In just a few weeks, in about a month from now, we're going to have a week of prayer.

We're going to call it prayer week and we're going to be praying like we did some time ago, praying for all kinds of things daily in our houses. And I pray that God would fulfill Moses' prayers for Judah that we find here in verse 7. And then in Levi, we have one of the longer sections. It's a prayer for speaking the words of God in the world. And of Levi, he said, let your Thumim and your Urim be with your Holy One whom you tested at Massa." So first, first I want you to notice about this section is that Moses' words here are focused on intercession and less blessing.

So Moses is interceding for them that something would be a reality among this family. And that's why Moses' first words are, let your humim and your urim be with your Holy One. And the prayer is for success in the role that God had given this tribe. And their role was threefold. First, to deliver education in biblical law to the children of Israel.

Secondly, they were responsible for a formal system of worship in the tabernacle. And then lastly, they were there to judge difficult situations. So this is a prayer for the success of that whole enterprise of this tribe. And it's based on the whole proposition that God reveals himself to his people through his word and then he delivers that to his servants who deliver it to his people. And of course we know that because of the Lord Jesus Christ we have all been made priests and Levites.

We all have elements of this role. But I want to focus on this whole matter of the Fumim and the Urim. First of all, I just want to make a note about the pronunciation. Everybody in the world seems to say Urim and Thummim. And it's because they don't know Hebrew.

Because in Hebrew, it's pronounced Urim and Fumim. I like to say it better that way anyway. But it's difficult to understand everything about the Urim and the Fumim. We do know that they were part of the clothing of the high priest, that they were two stones that seemed to be used for decision making, kind of like the casting of lots to know the will of God. It was part of the breastplate of judgment.

In other words, to make judgments about things, to go to the right or the left to say yes or no, good or evil. That was the overall purpose of this. We don't really know exactly how it was used. It would be nice to know. If we knew, I think everybody would be walking around with rocks in their pockets, trying to figure out what to do next.

So we're not told everything about that. But we do understand something in Exodus 28, verse 30, where we read, beginning in 29, so Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart, and when he goes into the holy place as a memorial before the Lord continually, and you shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thumim, and they shall be over Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord. So Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord continually." So the Urim and the Thumim, of course they were lost during the captivity. But the Fumim, the word indicates integrity, a positive response. Urim is illumination, perhaps a curse or a negative response, and it was all part of the clothing of the high priest.

And it was used to discern the will of God, to make judgments concerning the people of God, whether there was good or evil taking place among the people of God. They were used for that. By the way, if you know Mormonism, you know Joseph Smith claims that he found the Urim and the Fumim, and that's how he translated the Book of Mormon. But here, what we find in this intercession is that the loyalty of this tribe was tested at Massa. And there were other occasions where this tribe was actually proved to be faithful, to turn in the right direction, regardless of enormous pressures from family and friends that were laying upon them.

What he's saying here is that the Levites put loyalty to God before family and friend. And they were tested. They were tested at Massa for that purpose. And It's interesting that you read in verse 9 where we read that part of this test had to do with father and mother and brothers and children. Who says of his father and mother, I have not seen them, nor did he acknowledge his brothers, nor know his own children, for they observed your word and kept your covenant." What he's saying here is that the Levites did not engage in family idolatry.

In other words, to engage in sin because it was pleasurable to their family and friends. That's what he's saying. That they fulfilled what the Lord Jesus said, he who hates father and mother. You must hate father and mother in comparison to me. Or you cannot be my disciple.

And here is the role of this tribe, and it is our role as well, to be guided by the word of God and by the word of God alone. And that Father and Mother, though we honor them, though brothers and sisters, we bless them, though children, we train them and we bring them up in the training, the admonition of the Lord when he's sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, when we rise up. While we do that, we do not compromise what is true for them. That's the whole idea. This loyalty to God above family and tribe was displayed in Exodus chapter 32, where the Levites killed their brethren who would not come over to the Lord.

And They were willing to turn away from loyalty to friend and brother and neighbor in order to obey the Lord. And their responsibility was to uphold sound doctrine and holiness. And This is so important. And God often blames the priests and the Levites for the apostasy of the people. He does it in Hosea.

He does it in Jeremiah chapter 2. He does it in Malachi chapter 2, where he actually blames the priests and Levites for the apostasy of the people because they've not upheld the Word of God. They just fit in with everyone else. And so this two-fold function is really prayed for here in verse 10. They shall teach Jacob your judgments and Israel your law.

They shall put incense before you and whole burnt sacrifice on your altar. Bless his substance, Lord, and accept the work of his hands. Strike the loins of those who rise against him and of those who hate him that they rise not again." So the whole church, I believe, is implied here in the responsibility to be a pillar in support of the truth and to uphold it in the cultures that God has given us. David used the Urim and the Thumim, apparently, in 1 Samuel 23, when he was looking for answers. Now, This is extremely significant in our times.

Now, every study of the church that I'm aware of reveals that the church is biblically illiterate today And there are specific reasons for it. But because we don't know who God is, we become parrots of the world. Because we don't know how to have marriages because we don't understand the doctrine of the Trinity. We don't understand who we are because we don't understand the doctrine of sin. We have severe emotional problems because we don't understand the doctrine of sanctification.

We don't know how to work because we don't understand the work of Christ. There's so many things that can be traced to our biblical illiteracy. And so this prayer for Levi is very, very relevant in our times today. The problems of our culture can all be traced to a lack of knowledge of God and just a fundamental ignorance of critical doctrines of the faith. And these things can be fulfilled by the fulfillment of this prayer for Moses.

This should be the prayer that we should have for our church and for one another and for those who have been appointed as elders in this church. Here's what A.W. Tozer said about the importance of the knowledge of God. What comes into our minds when we think of God is the most important thing about us. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

And that's really what is being appealed to in this intercession for Levi, that they would be speaking the words of God in the world. And let's go to the next tribe, Benjamin. Verse 12, for a beloved and sheltered people, of Benjamin, he said, the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him, who shelters him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders. Now Benjamin was loved by his earthly father and by his heavenly father as we can see. You know, Judah goes with the southern kingdom.

God protects, I mean, protects Benjamin by sheltering them from apostasy of the Northern Kingdom for a time. They do falter later. The Temple of Jerusalem was built on their land. These people lived in the neighborhood of the worship of God. And they lived under the shadow of his wings, who shelters him all day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.

This is a wonderful explanation of the way that God takes care of his people here, that he shelters them. He says, he says, they shall dwell in safety by him, by him. I love those words. There's a song that I've sung to my children at night, which the lyrics say, by your side I will stay, in your arms I will lay. I love those words.

That's the essence of what is being prayed for with Benjamin. Benjamin would become a perverted tribe later on. God would destroy all but only a few, just a few hundred of them. But God, in order to protect them, would chastise them and reduce their numbers. But Benjamin, for a beloved and sheltered people.

And then Joseph. Joseph here is the longest. Levi and Joseph have the most air time in this blessing. And Joseph has a prayer for a prosperous people. Remember Joseph, he comes out of the bottom of a pit and over time because of his faithfulness, his diligence, his purity, God puts him at the head of Egypt for such a time as was necessary to rescue a people for his own possession.

God blessed him in Egypt and then in the promised land. And Moses here, he just seems to draw from every possible corner of nature to try to explain the blessedness of this tribe. Look at verse 13. With the land, with the precious things of heaven, with the dew, with the deep lying beneath. Then in verse 14, precious fruits of the sun, precious produce of the months, the best things of the ancient mountains in verse 15, of the precious things of the everlasting hills, verse 16, with the earth in its fullness, blessings on the head, the crown of his head.

Moses is just pouring out every possible explanation of how anyone could possibly be blessed, from earth and heaven, the ground, from everything. And it's a prayer of blessing. It reminds me of Ephesians, of what it says in Ephesians, chapter 1, that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It's the prayer for that kind of blessing. There was a season of deprivation for Joseph.

It was a long season. He, until he was, he lived either as a slave or a prisoner until he was 30 years old. So he had times of deprivation and difficulty and buffeting. They're hard times, but God sees that his children are rewarded in their heavenly home. There is for all of God's people the riches of heaven, things that eye has not seen or ear heard.

There are things that are more wonderful than we can even imagine that God has prepared for us. In many ways we're like Joseph. We have this kind of abundance waiting for us. And it is coming. And yet these blessings, I don't believe, are spoken just for heavenly things.

They're also spoken for earthly things. That it's a blessing to have this this kind of abundance you know laid upon you. This it was military prosperity, it was it was material success, it was family fruitfulness, it was it was all kinds of things and and it was strength He will push the peoples to the ends of the earth. And so here is a prayer for an enormous outpouring of prosperity for a prosperous people. We should pray for prosperity.

It's not a bad thing to pray for these blessings to come upon your family and your church and your community. And they are temporal in nature, not just heavenly. And then Zebulun, verse 18, for people going out. And of Zebulun, he said, rejoice Zebulun, and you're going out. And Here I untangle Zebulun and Issachar, although there may be some crossover here in the language of the blessings of this prayer.

Coming in and going out signifies the normal courses of everyday life. And there is prosperity. This was a tribe that made their living by the sea, by fishing, by commerce, and this is how God channeled blessing to this tribe who lived by the seashore as Genesis chapter 49 indicates. Zebulun is the modern-day Haifa. It's a large shipping port today and I was really taken by Matthew Henry's explanation of this tribe, because it really gets to an important principle that's here, and also as we move into Issachar.

Here's what he says. That the providence of God appoints the bounds of men's habitation, some in the city, some in the country, some in the seaports, some in the inland towns. So it wisely disposes men's inclinations to different employments for the good of the public, as each member of the body is situated and qualified for the service of the whole." So he's talking about the genius of God is that he puts people in certain places and they flourish in a certain way. With Zebulun, it was in seafaring. That was the life that he was given.

And in that life, he played a certain role. But There are problems with seafaring. There are things that will make you bang your head against the wall. Have you ever heard of the widow's walk? If you're a seafarer, your wife might build the widow's walk so she can walk at the top of the house to see if you're ever going to come back again.

There are problems with all vocations. All vocations have their various issues and difficulties and stresses. And we have to understand that that's the way that God has ordered the world. Matthew Henry continues. He says, it was for the common good of Israel that the men of Zebulun were merchants and the men of Issachar were husbandmen.

That whatever our place and business, It is our wisdom and duty to accommodate ourselves to them, and it is a great happiness to be well pleased with them. Let me just pause. Are you well pleased with what God has appointed to you? The skills He's given you, the job he's given you, or are you just gnashing at your teeth at the troubles from it? Believe me, I have and am gnashing at the teeth of some of my troubles and difficulties that are part of the things that God has given me to do.

Here he says, let Zebulun rejoice in his going out. Let him thank God for the gains and make the best of the losses and the inconveniences of his merchandise, and not despise the meanness, nor envy the quietness of Issachar's tents." So here there's this picture of Zebulun, seed-bearing, dangerous, incredibly risky, and there are all kinds of problems with it, he shouldn't envy Issaqar's life in his tents, because Issaqar has his own problems, as we'll get to in a minute. He says this, Let Issaqar rejoice in his tents. Let him be well pleased with the requirements and content with the small profit of his country seats and not grudge that he is not Zebulun's pleasure of traveling and profit and trading. He says every business has its own conveniences and inconveniences.

Can you relate to that, brothers? Every business has its own conveniences and inconveniences. We have a brother here who spends up, he's up all night long doing his business in a certain season. And he doesn't always appreciate it. And there are things that all of you here struggle with.

You know, whether you labor in the word and You tear your heart out, and it could be because you are so stupid, and you hate the work sometimes, or you are like our brother who has to stay up all night. He says this. He says every business has both its conveniences and inconveniences. Therefore, whatever providence has made our business, we ought to bring our minds to it. And it is really a great happiness, whatever our lot is, to be easy with it.

This is the gift of God. They shall call and they shall be most serviceable in their places of honor and in the interests appointed to them in the nation. So here with Zebulon, you come across this unusual lifestyle of seafaring, and there are issues with it. And I just want to ask you men, are you grinding your teeth? Are you dissatisfied with what God has given you?

Stop that. Rejoice with all of your heart. Do your work with all of your heart, as unto the Lord. Maybe God's leading you to something different. There's nothing wrong with changing.

But to gnash the teeth in a time when God has blessed you with work is a sinful thing. And I dare say that if you're like me, you have struggled with that from time to time. So, Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea, he shall become a haven for ships, and his borders shall adjoin Sidon." Says Genesis 49, 13. Okay, so that's Zebulun, for a people going out. Issachar, for a people who stay in their tents and call the nations to Christ and prosper.

Now, I've added a little to this, but I think the meaning is there. And Issaqar in your tents, in verse 18, and they shall call the peoples to the mountains, and there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness for they partake of the abundance of the seas and of the treasures hidden in the sand." And so even though these people are more bound to their tents, they are still a people who are calling others to come to the mountain. And Issachar is to rejoice in being servants. It's a tribe that seems to be tied down in a way. His weakness was that he loved pleasure and as a result he became a band of slaves.

He wanted to do the minimum and he became a slave as a result. That was the problem with him. We read, Issaqar was a strong donkey lying down between two burdens. He saw that rest was good and that the land was present. He bowed his shoulder to bear a burden and became a band of slaves.

So his Achilles heel was laziness, and he became a slave as a result. But this was his lot in life. Perhaps his weakness was leisure. He would rather sit on the couch than wear himself out in his father's business. And so there was a role for that tribe.

So instead of bearing burdens, rather he ducked them. And then, so Issachar for people who stay in their tents and call the nations to Christ and prosper. Gad, for an aggressive people of justice and judgment and of Gad he said, blessed is he who enlarges Gad. He dwells as a lion and tears the arm and the crown of his head. He provided the first part for himself because a lawgiver's portion was reserved there.

Now, verse 21 is difficult, but I think what verse 21 means is that he had the spoils of his victory and he took some for himself and then there was some for the law giver's portion reserved there. I believe it was the fact that he was giving the law giver's portion. It may be something else. Maybe you know what it is. That's the best I can do.

He came with the heads of the people. He administered the justice of the Lord and his judgments with Israel. So this is an aggressive people for justice who meet out judgment. These are sort of the apologists of the day. And Jacob says in Genesis 49, 19, he says, Gad is a troop.

Gad, a troop, shall tramp on him, but he shall triumph at last. So there's aggression here. He's tearing off arms. He's knocking off heads. It's pretty wild language.

It's the language of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is your sweet Jesus here in this tribe. He's administering law and justice. And you know, I think it really speaks to the fact that we are, we are an army, we're a people of God's own possession, and we have responsibilities in the world for justice and for judgment. So GAD, for an aggressive people of judgment and justice.

Now, here's a question. I mean, when you think about your own life, do you have that quality in you or are you just, are you kind of a whatever person? You know, there are whatever people and then there are people of justice and judgment. Which one do you want to be? Are you weak in this area or strong?

I know some people are just naturally strong, enormously gifted, the body is diverse, That's a good thing. However, however, we might learn from GAD. Some of us need to be a little bit more GAD-y than we are today. And some of us might need to be less GAD-y than we are today. But here, this prayer is that they would be enlarged, that they would be victorious, they would tear the arms off, and that they would administer the justice of the Lord.

It's a wonderful role in the world of play. It's our role to play in the world. And then we come after this prayer for an aggressive people of justice and judgment, we come to Dan. For lion-like judges who bite. Now you probably could have a better title for this tribe than I.

And of Dan, he said, Dan is a lion's welp. He shall leap from Bation. Dan means judge. He judges. He has the law that bites.

And in Genesis 49, verse 16, we read that Jacob says this, Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent, by the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse's heels so that the rider falls backwards. So he's coming with judgment and the rider... It just reminds me of what the Apostle Paul said about the law, that the law convicts of sin, the law kills you. It makes you fall back.

It makes you realize that you have no righteousness of your own. That your only hope is to have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The law comes and bites you. If you don't have Christ, you're dead. And Dan is a lion-like judge who bites.

He's like a serpent who causes the rider to fall back. For what? For salvation. I have waited for your salvation, oh Lord, in Genesis 49. Here, Moses is praying.

And he says that Dan is a lion's whelp. In other words, like a cute baby lion. If you need a picture of a cute baby lion in this one, you see just the cutest little Aren't baby lions cute? Aren't they? They are just so cute.

Well, this baby lion's going to grow up because Moses is speaking about this lion in his infancy. He's immature. He's in an infant stage now, but he won't stay there. He will lunge out like a viper on the path that bites the horse's heels. So there's increasing strength that we find.

We find that Dan becomes apostate recorded in Judges 17 and 18 and Judges chapter 20. It's a tragic story. Dan, who was to be used of the Lord to proclaim what is evil, to discern what is evil, and exercise his conscience by the Word of God, he fails at that time. And I believe God preserves this among his people. So, Dan, for lion-like judges who bite, that should be one of our prayers.

Are you one of those that needs to rise up and play that role in the world? Then there's Naphtali, verse 23, for a people blessed and satisfied and favored and expanding. I'm going to add that to the outline and expanding. And of Naphtali he said, Naphtali satisfied with favor, full of the blessing of the Lord, possess the West and the South. Genesis 49 tells us that Naphtali is a deer let loose.

He uses beautiful words and he's expanding. In his blessing he's expanding beyond the border that he has now. John Gill points out that the name Naphtali means wrestlings, that God, that these are the wrestlings of the saints with God in prayer and with their enemies and of sin and of the world and their strivings for the faith of the gospel, for expanding so that they would possess the West and the South so that they would be ever expanding. It's so easy for us as believers just to rest right where we are and not move ahead, not engage in any extra effort, engage any more vision or changes in our personal, our family, our work lives. We just want to stay the same.

We just want to have equilibrium. That's not the prayer that would be fulfilled for Naphtali. It's a prayer for blessing, but also for expansion. So it's a prayer for a people blessed, satisfied, favored, and expanding. And then 11, Asher.

For a people blessed, favored, well taken care of, protected, a strong people. I have a friend who named his son Asher, so I love this verse. And of Asher he said, Asher is most blessed of sons. Let him be favored by his brothers. Let him dip his foot in oil.

Your sandals shall be iron and bronze. As your days so shall your strength be." This is a tribe blessed with happiness and abundance. All of oil on the feet, implied wealth. He's given what is worth more than rubies. The KJV says he's blessed with children, which I think adds a twist there.

It was a very large tribe. You know, what you see here are this whole matter of sandals shall be as iron and bronze. Some of the other versions use the word bars or gates. Whether it's bars or gates or, you know, coverings on really strong sandals. You know, It really has to do with this impenetrable strength that God gives, that God protects gives that God protects his people.

And he does it through strong fortifications that he gives. So we move from Asher, a people blessed, favored, and well taken care of, to Simeon. Now where's Simeon? Simeon's not here. Simeon is not mentioned.

Simeon is absorbed into Judah. Simeon had become involved in the immorality at Beth Peor, which is recorded in Numbers 26, verses 6 through 15, which brought about such a population loss that the tribe came to almost nothing. They shrank to such a level that they were just assimilated into Judah, and they completely lost their identity as a family. And perhaps the most relevant clue is found in Genesis 49, verse 5. Simeon and Levi are brothers.

Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter into their council. Let not my honor be united to their assembly. For in their anger they slew a man. And in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.

Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath for it is cruel. I will divide them. This is it. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." So Jacob prophesied that they would come to nothing. They would just be dispersed.

Families often lose their identities or defile them through sin and that's what happened to this tribe. They were wiped out and diffused into the world without any distinction or role or competence passed down. They just disappeared. Let that not happen to your family. Let that not happen.

It will happen to your family if you don't rise up and teach your children and walk with them and talk with them. If you play the game of this world and walk in the economy of this world and neglect to incorporate your family into every aspect of your life, This will most likely happen. Okay, so how do we apply this? There are a number of things. First of all, these are types of the Church.

1 Corinthians 10 makes that very clear. So there were so many issues brought up here. I don't know how to go back to any particular one. But let me just say, which of these sins are yours? Be convicted and repent.

Which blessings are yours? Identify them and give thanks. Which blessings do you need to enter into that you have not been entering into as a family? Then seek first the Kingdom of Heaven. So that's the first sort of layer of how we apply this, I think, is we have to think about it in terms of our own lives, our own family lives, our own church.

And then secondly, there's a whole other layer of application here, And that is that this really represents the heart of God for his people. It shows what God does for his people. It shows what God desires for his people. It's really an explanation of the kind intention of the will of God toward his children. And these are prayers for the people of God.

It shows how God treats people. And it is an example for us. It's an exposition of the love of God. And it casts a vision for the Lord Jesus Christ who saves sinners. He takes people from every tongue and tribe and nation, out of every manner of paganism, and He brings them together and He makes them His people.

And then He intercedes for them. He prays for them. The Bible says the Lord Jesus Christ is praying for His Church. And it's a picture of what Jesus is doing for us. You know, if you have concerns and difficulties now, you may think they're so insurmountable.

You might think that the prayers of the saints cannot help you, but let me tell you, Jesus Christ is praying for you in all of your troubles. Have you named your troubles? Jesus Christ is praying for you in your troubles. In the same way that Moses is praying for the children of Israel, The kind intention of God's will is being shouted from heaven at the right hand of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God also helping us in our weaknesses because we don't even know how to pray.

Here Moses is praying, But we should learn more than just that about prayer. There's a whole world of prayerfulness toward us by God. God loves His children. He loves His saints, as it says in the opening verses of this text. So we see the kind intentions of his will toward his people.

I just want to close with Isaiah's understanding of this because Isaiah understood the whole tenor of this passage. In Isaiah 46 verse 3 we read, Listen to me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by me from birth, who have been carried from the womb, even to your old age I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made and I will bear, even I will carry, and deliver you." And that is, I believe, a great help from this text for us, that we understand what's happening to us now, that we're being prayed for by Almighty God. Hopefully, we are a people of prayer and that we're also being prayed for by our brothers and sisters. We know that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with words too deep for our understanding.

And this is a blessing of entering into the Kingdom of Heaven. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for how you've exposed so many ways of your loving your people through this prayer. Thank you Lord. Oh Lord Jesus.

We thank you for your prayers in the midst of our trials and difficulties. We know that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Amen.