Genesis 49:22

Genesis 49:22 says, Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:  Jacob now begins to share his understanding of God's plan for Joseph.  If we are to look to the future of God's plans for anyone, we need to make sure that they are God's plans and not ours.  Though Jacob had treated Joseph as special, he could not ensure Joseph's future, but could only share God's plans for him.  Likewise, we cannot determine that God will endorse our plans for our children.  We can only lead them to a knowledge of Christ.  Verse twenty-three states, The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:  I am not sure when Joseph had literally been attacked by archers, but I do know that his life was threatened on more than one occasion, first by his own brothers.  Verse twenty-four adds, But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)  Jacob said Joseph was protected by Jacob's mighty God.  Through all Joseph's physical struggles, he was able to become a physical shepherd of Israel, saving them from destruction.  Just as Joseph was the physical shepherd of Israel, so is Christ the spiritual shepherd of all who put their faith in Him.  Christ saves us from spiritual destruction, though we may not be spared physical suffering and destruction.  Verse twenty-five continues, Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:  Jacob basically said that God would bless Joseph in all ways, not because of who Joseph was, but because of Who God was and always will be.  We cannot expect God to bless us simply because of who we are.  Verse twenty-six concludes, The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.  Matthew Henry states that this referred to Isaac having but on blessing to bestow, but Jacob had a blessing for all his children.  God's promise to make a great nation of the descendants of Abraham, though slow in being fulfilled by our concept of time, was now about to really begin to flourish.  Even if we think God's promises are slow to be fulfilled, we can be certain that they will be in His time.  Verse twenty-seven says, Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.  Matthew Henry points out that since Benjamin became Jacob's favorite after he thought that Joseph was dead, if these were just Jacob's hopes fot his children that Benjamin's blessing would have been more positive.  These blessings for his children were what God lead Jacob to bestow on them.  All we can do for our children is lead them to Christ, and then He was bestow His blessings on them.  Verse twenty-eight declares, All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.  These twelve would become the twelve tribes of Israel, through whom God would work to bring people to a knowledge of Him.  Today, God works through those who are followers of Christ, those who are born again into His family.  Verse twenty-nine adds, And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,  Jacob had his children vow that they would not bury him in Egypt, but would return his remains to be buried with his ancestors.  As Christians, it really doesn't matter where we are buried or not buried from a spiritual perspective, because God will keep us in His hands.  Verse thirty adds, In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace.  Jacob specifies exactly where he is to be buried.  Verse thirty-one adds, There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.  Jacob said this was where Abraham and Rebekah were buried, as well as Leah.  Leah was Jacob's first wife, and he was to be buried with her.  Again, from a spiritual perspective it does not matter where we are buried or whom we are buried with.  It really doesn't even matter if we are buried.  Verse thirty-two continues, The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.  Then verse thirty-three concludes, And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.  Jacob had given his sons their blessings and had given them his instructions for his burial.  He did not live to see all this happen.  We may not live to see all of God's promises fulfilled, but we can put our faith in the fact that they will be.