GENESIS - CHAPTER
48
A Bible Study - Commentary by Jim
Melough
Copyright
2000 James Melough
48:1.
“And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy
father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.”
If we have been
correct in taking the preceding chapters to be the symbolic disclosure of the means
by which God will bring both the remnant of Israel and the believing Gentiles through
the Tribulation into the Millennium, then the “after these things” of this verse
should take us to what will be after the Millennium.
Re 20:7-10
tells us, that following the Millennium, Satan, released from his thousand year
imprisonment, will gather together the rebels of earth for his final attempt to
overthrow God, and then will come the end of this present earth and heavens.
It seems that the interval between the release of Satan and the end of the
world will be again a time of persecution and trial for believers.
It may be therefore, that Jacob’s sickness is intended to be the symbolic
portrayal of that suffering.
Since Jacob took
Joseph’s two sons to be his own, verse 5, Joseph’s taking Manasseh and Ephraim
with him may be the typical announcement of the perpetuation of Jacob’s life
through these two grandchildren. It
becomes therefore, the assurance that though Israel the nation, like Jacob, will also
become old and sick, yet her life will be perpetuated beyond the Millennium, beyond
the persecution that will follow it, for she will continue for ever in the new earth,
where there will be no sickness, no aging, no death.
Manasseh means causing
to forget, and Ephraim, double ash-heap: I shall be doubly fruitful.
In previous studies we have noted, that as his sons, they represent the
perpetuation of Joseph’s life; and now, taken by Jacob to be his sons, they
represent the perpetuation of his life also. In
addition, however, they represent also the perpetuation of the life of Israel as a
nation, and the same character attaches to the perpetuated life of all three: it will
be in a forgetting of the past, and the enjoyment of fruitfulness following
suffering.
But Israel’s history
is also the symbolic prewritten history of the Church, and she, too, displays the
symptoms of sickness and aging, but for her also there is the assurance of eternal
perpetuation when the sufferings of earth will be forgotten in the enjoyment of
eternal fruitfulness. And what is true of the Church corporately is true also of every
member of that mystical body.
48:2.
“And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and
Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.”
It is Jacob who is
addressed, but significantly it is Israel who strengthens himself.
Jacob represents us as we are physically, but Israel represents us as we are
spiritually. Physically we grow old and sick, but spiritually we are
strengthened by the prospect of the coming of Him Whom Joseph represents, as it is
written, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the
inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Co 4:16).
And what is true for the individual is true also for the Church, for the
beleaguered Tribulation remnant, and for those who will suffer under the activity of
Satan in the interval between the end of the Millennium and the beginning of the
eternal state.
48:3.
“And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the
land of Canaan, and blessed me.”
The record of that
appearance of God to Jacob is found in Ge 28:13. It was at the time of his flight from Esau.
The spot which Jacob called Bethel house of God appears to have been in
the vicinity of the city called Luz, which later also became known as Bethel.
Now, old and sick, and near the end of his life, Jacob still clings to that
promise, realizing that it would be in resurrection he would experience its
fulfillment.
It is instructive that
he called the place Luz rather than Bethel. Luz means perverse, a name far more in keeping with his
character then than the name Bethel would have been. It serves to remind us that that covenant was one of grace, given
to one who was perverse and unworthy, but this in turn reminds us that we who are the
beneficiaries of a better covenant are equally perverse and unworthy.
God’s promises to
Jacob were according to His own character, not Jacob’s, and it was on this
knowledge that Jacob’s confidence rested. Our
confidence rests on that same sure foundation.
Without having
experienced fulfillment of the promises, Jacob could face death without a doubt that
they would be fulfilled, and the evidence of his faith was his insistence that he be
buried in Canaan. Whether he understood
the spiritual implication of his actions, the fact remains that in his linking
himself with those two sons who perpetuated Joseph’s life, we have a picture of a
believer’s appropriation of the life of Christ through faith, for Joseph is a type
of Christ, as his sons are a type of the eternal perpetuation of Christ’s life.
Jacob’s adoption of Joseph’s sons therefore, becomes a clear picture of
faith’s appropriation of eternal life, which is the life of Christ.
As we have noted,
however, Jacob’s experience is but a miniature of the experience of the nation of
Israel. A review of those experiences
may help us to discern the picture more clearly.
The famine that drove them down to Egypt and eventual reconciliation with
Joseph, represents the Tribulation. The
happy years in Goshen represent the Millennium, but in Jacob’s being old and sick,
and near the end of his life, we are being shown that in the post-Millennial
period the nation of Israel will also be old (she will have existed for over four
thousand years, if we date the Exodus at c.1400 B.C.); she will be sick (experiencing
persecution at the hand of man and Satan); and as far as earthly experience is
concerned she will be “dying,” her long history will be near its end.
But as Jacob’s hope lay beyond Goshen, so does Israel’s hope lie beyond
the Millennium: her eternal blessedness will be in connection with a new heavens and
a new earth, Re ch. 21. Jacob’s
anticipation of future resurrection blessings was linked to his appropriation of the
life of Joseph, symbolically shown in his adoption of Joseph’s two sons.
But since Joseph and his sons represent Christ, the spiritual truth being
declared is that Israel’s eternal blessedness will not be apart from her
appropriation of Christ as Savior. And
what is true of Israel is true of all men: apart from faith in Christ, man has no
hope.
48:4.
“And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and
I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after
thee for an everlasting possession.”
The fact that this
promise was given to Jacob unconditionally tells us that it was according to God’s
grace. This is not to imply, however,
that God arbitrarily choose to bless Jacob apart from faith.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that this promise was given to a man who had first
had faith to appropriate the birthright that his brother Esau had despised.
It is grace alone that has provided salvation, but that salvation must be
accepted by faith through an act of the individual’s will, before its blessings
become available. Believers are
predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ, Ro 8:29, but no one is
predestinated to be a believer: a man becomes a believer by an act of his own free
will, just as by a similar free-willed choice he may remain an unbeliever.
For Jacob, the
fruitfulness, the multiplication, the increase that would make him a nation, and the
possession of the land, were still unfulfilled promises, but he faced death with his
confidence in God unshaken. He believed
that all those promises would be fulfilled in resurrection, by the God of
resurrection. It will be from the
vantage point of the heavenly Jerusalem that he, with us, will look down and see all
those promises fulfilled to his descendants on the Millennial earth.
But even that will not exhaust the fullness of the Divine blessings: those
blessings will continue in fuller and far more perfect measure in the new heavens and
new earth.
48:5.
“And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in
the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon,
they shall be mine.”
Ephraim means double
ash-heap: I shall be doubly fruitful; and Manasseh, causing to forget.
His adoption of these two sons is Jacob’s confession that all his present
blessing, as well as future expectations, were because of Joseph, for it was by means
of his sufferings and eventual exaltation that the lives of Jacob’s family had been
preserved. It was because of Joseph that
they had become fruitful, Ge 47:27, and were able to forget the unfruitful years of
their estrangement from him.
But the spiritual
picture is of broader scope. Jacob’s
experience is to Israel what the preliminary sketch is to the finished painting: the
fuller measure of Israel’s blessings await the Millennium, and beyond the
Millennium lies her full eternal blessing when a new heavens and a new earth will
replace those which now exist.
We should note the
deliberate reversal of the birth order: though Manasseh was the firstborn, he is
mentioned after Ephraim. As we have
noted in earlier studies, this declares the unacceptability of the natural man
which the firstborn always represents. The
natural must give place to the spiritual, represented by the secondborn.
It is emphasized that
these sons had been born to Joseph in Egypt before Jacob came unto him in Egypt.
Since Joseph represents Christ in rejection and suffering; and these two sons,
Christ in resurrection, this statement becomes a prophecy: it wouldn’t be until
after Christ’s death and resurrection that Israel the nation would come unto Him.
The prophecy still awaits fulfillment, for though Christ has died and been
raised again, it will take the “seven years of famine” (the Tribulation
judgments) to bring the believing remnant of Israel unto Him.
“... as Reuben and
Simeon, they shall be mine.” Every
line of this symbolic picture displays the unacceptability of the flesh.
First, Jacob’s name had been changed to Israel.
Then he had had to give place to Joseph; and now his first two sons must give
place to the first two sons of Joseph (the rejection of Reuben and Simeon is clearly
indicated in Ge 49:3-7). From
Genesis to Revelation, Scripture sounds the warning, “Ye must be born again,” for
“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”
As the firstborn,
Reuben should have inherited a double portion upon his father’s death, but having
forfeited that right through sin, that double portion was assured to Joseph through
Jacob’s adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh. Joseph’s
double portion points to the lordship of Christ in the realm of both the spiritual
and the temporal, as it does also to His lordship over both Jew and Gentile.
48:6.
“And thy issue which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be
called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.”
This perpetuation of
Jacob’s life in the two who were also the perpetuation of Joseph’s life, tells us
that the life possessed by the believer is the life of Christ, as is declared in Ga
2:20, “... I live; and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me....” The life of Joseph
(Christ crucified) continued in Ephraim and Manasseh (Christ resurrected), and those
two had become also the continuation of Jacob’s life.
That this is true of all believers, Jews as well as Gentiles, is annunciated
in the fact that any other sons Joseph might have would be called “after the name
of their brethren (Ephraim and Manasseh). In
other words, future children of Joseph would be reckoned the same as those first two.
The spiritual message isn’t hard to read.
Those first two represent Christ in resurrection, and every believer bears the
imprint of that image, “... because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 Jn
4:17), and when our course in this world is finished we shall stand in heaven
perfectly “... conformed to the image of His Son” (Ro 8:29).
And every believer is characterized by what is associated with the meanings of
the names of these sons: a forgetting of the past, and a corresponding increase in
spiritual fruitfulness.
48:7.
“And as for me, when I came from Padan, meaning their ransom, Rachel a
ewe died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little
way to come to Ephrath ashiness: fruitfulness: and I buried her there in the
way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem house of bread."
A full discussion of
the significance of Rachel’s death will be found in the notes on Ge ch. 35.
There we found that the events connected with her death speak of increasing
fruitfulness and closer conformity to the image of Christ, resulting from the
discipline and trial of suffering. Jacob
at that time may have thought that God’s discipline was complete, that there could
be no deeper sorrow than that caused by Rachel’s death.
But the discipline wasn’t complete: he must experience also the bitter
mourning for a Joseph presumed dead. Now,
near the end of the journey, viewing his life in retrospect, he sees that all the
trials, all the things that seemed to be “against me” were but the process by
which God was working all things together for his ultimate good. At the time of Rachel’s death he had changed his son’s name to
Benjamin son of the right hand, but he had to learn that it would be through
Joseph (Christ crucified), not Benjamin (Christ reigning), that blessing would come.
And he had lived to see some of that fruitfulness and blessing in an Egypt
ruled by Joseph (type of Israel’s blessedness in a millennial earth ruled by
Christ); but he realized also that that wasn’t the fullness of blessing promised by
God - that blessing was to be in Canaan, not Egypt.
That expectation, however, is itself the shadow of a still better hope: beyond
the Millennium lie Israel’s eternal blessings.
48:8.
“And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, Who are these?”
It is Israel, not
Jacob, who sees the sons who are not only the sons of Joseph, but now also his.
It is the new man alone who has the life of Christ (represented by Ephraim and
Manasseh).
Whether Israel was
totally blind is a moot point, though the context seems to imply partial, rather than
total blindness, a condition more in keeping with the spiritual picture.
Total blindness is very clearly a symbol of total spiritual blindness, the
state of the unsaved. Partial blindness,
on the other hand, portrays the earthly state of the believer: we see, but “through
a glass, darkly.” It seems that Israel
could discern the forms of the boys, but not well enough to distinguish the one from
the other. Such is the state of every
believer - at best we discern spiritual realities dimly here on earth.
Full vision, however, will be ours in heaven.
His question, “Who are these?” simply portrays the desire of the believer
to know more of Him Whom Joseph’s sons represent.
48.9.
“And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me
in this place. And he said, Bring them,
I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.”
Since Ephraim and
Manasseh represent the resurrection life of Christ, Joseph’s declaring them to be
the sons given him “in this place (Egypt, type of the world),” reminds us that it
was here “in this place (earth)” that God gave Christ what Joseph’s sons
represent - resurrection life. It
was here on earth that Christ revealed the resurrection power of God by coming out of
the tomb and presenting Himself alive to the believers who had seen Him die.
Israel hadn’t seen
Joseph die, but he believed that he had died (as indeed he had typically), nor have
we actually seen the Lord die, but by faith we believe He did.
Nor had Israel seen Joseph rise from the dead (as he did typically), but he
acted as though he had. We haven’t
seen Christ rise from the dead, but we believe He did, and act accordingly.
We perceive these things by the eye of faith, but a faith that sees dimly in
the darkness of earth, as Israel with physically dimmed eyes saw Joseph living in
Ephraim and Manasseh.
“I will bless
them.” There are many shades of
meaning of the word “bless,” and here the meaning is not so much that Israel
conferred a blessing upon them as that he simply declared that they were blessed.
This is in harmony with the typical picture.
We can confer no blessing on Christ, but we can acknowledge that He is
blessed.
48:10.
“Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see.
And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.”
In Israel’s kissing
and embracing these two grandsons (type of Christ) whom he could see but dimly, if at
all, we have a picture of the attitude of the believer towards Christ.
By faith we see Him, but only dimly, yet our attitude is described by Peter,
“Whom having not seen (with our natural eyes), ye love....” (1 Pe 1:8).
This truth is no better expressed than in the words of the poet:
Only
faintly now I see Him,
With
the darkling veil between;
But
a blessed day is coming,
When
His glory shall be seen.
48:11.
“And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: but, lo,
God hath shewn me also thy seed.”
As we have seen,
Ephraim and Manasseh represent Christ in resurrection.
Israel’s joy at seeing these sons of the Joseph he had never expected to see
again, foreshadows the joy of the disciples on the evening of that first day when the
risen Lord appeared in their midst, “Then were the disciples glad when they saw the
Lord” (Jn 20:20). The same joyful
experience awaits us at the Rapture, as it awaits also the believing remnant at the
Lord’s return to end the Tribulation and inaug-urate the kingdom.
48:12.
And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with
his face to the earth.”
Here the type changes.
Israel now represents God the Father, while Joseph and his two sons here
represent the nation of Israel. In
blessing them, Israel was conferring upon them the blessing of Abraham, to be enjoyed
in resurrection. They were now to have
the blessing transferred to them as the next links in the chain that would preserve
the line of faith until the time came for the fulfillment of the promises.
Since the less is blessed by the greater, Joseph, though lord of Egypt (in the
present context, type of Israel ruling the millennial earth), bows before his father.
So will the nation of Israel (the believing remnant) bow in grateful
submission before God as they receive, not the promise, but the fulfillment of the
promises in the Millennium.
48:13.
“And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left
hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them
near unto him.”
Joseph’s intention
was that the blessing of the firstborn should be conferred on the firstborn,
Manasseh, but such wasn’t God’s intention. As
has been noted many times in the course of these studies, the firstborn represents
the old nature which God rejects. A
faint disclosure of the Divine intent is revealed in Ephraim’s being mentioned here
before Manasseh.
48:14.
“And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head,
who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands
wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.”
Israel’s eyes might
be dim for age, so that he could not see, but physical sight counts for nothing in
the spiritual realm. Guided by the Holy
Spirit, Israel placed his right hand (the hand of strength and blessing) on the
younger, the one who represents the new nature; for the flesh, represented by the
firstborn, is condemned by God, and can inherit no blessing.
48:15.
“And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before Whom my fathers Abraham and
Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,”
48:16.
“The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name
be named on them, and the name of my father Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into
a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
That Joseph’s sons
are but the perpetuation of his own life is revealed in its being said that Israel
blessed Joseph, though in fact he pronounced the blessing on Ephraim and Manasseh.
Joseph and his sons combine to show us Christ suffering (Joseph), but
resurrected (Ephraim and Manasseh). They
present us also, however, with a picture of the believer, for in Joseph we see
ourselves “crucified with Christ,” but in Ephraim and Manasseh we see ourselves
living in Christ, forgetting the things that are behind, and being fruitful
spiritually.
Connected with the
blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh was God’s preservation of Jacob-Israel, and
so is it with us: as God fed or shepherded Jacob all his life long, so has He fed or
shepherded us, and as Jacob belonged to the line of faith that began with Abraham,
and was continued in Isaac, so do we also belong to that same line of faith.
Israel’s referring
to God as “the Angel which redeemed me from all evil” reminds us that in the Old
Testament references to the Angel of the Lord we are to see not only Christ, but the
Christ Who is God the Son. It is He Who
has redeemed us from all evil.
Whatever other
significance may belong to the words, “let my name be named on them, and the name
of ... Abraham and Isaac,” one that certainly suggests itself is connected with the
meanings of those names. Abraham means father
of a great multitude; Isaac, he shall laugh; and Israel, the name given in
place of Jacob, means he shall be prince of God: God’s fighter: may God strive
(fight for him). Joseph, through
these two sons, would become the father of a great multitude; the tears accompanying
the long years of Israel’s estrangement from God will yet give place to millennial
laughter; and the nation that has for so long displayed the Jacob nature to the
nations, will yet stand among them as a prince of God.
But since Joseph is also a type of Christ, this blessing becomes the
pronouncement of the Father’s blessing upon the Son Whom Joseph portrays.
Christ will yet be revealed as the “Father” of a great multitude; the
suffering of earth will yet give place to laughter as He welcomes His redeemed into
the Father’s house; and He Who willingly took the place of a servant will yet stand
forth as the Prince of peace.
“... and let them
grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” Israel did grow into a multitude in Egypt (the world), but the
full experience of that blessing will be in the Millennium.
48:17.
“And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of
Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from
Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.”
It is strange that the
man who had displayed such integrity and faith, who had had such revelations from
God, and who had experienced the fulfillment of those revelations, should have been
unaware of the spiritual significance of Israel’s blessing the younger over the
elder. It may be that God would remind
us of the natural man’s inability to comprehend spiritual things; for in this
present context, Ephraim and Manasseh, as sons, are the second generation (the
spiritual), while Joseph, as their father, is the first generation (the natural).
48:18.
“And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the
firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.”
Typically, this is the
flesh speaking, for the flesh loves the things of the flesh, and will always seek to
hinder the blessing of the new nature.
48:19.
“And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also
shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother
shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.”
It was as Israel, not
Jacob, that he answered Joseph’s protest, for Israel represents the new nature, as
Jacob does the old. The contrast between
the error and uncertainty of the flesh, and the assurance of the spirit, is disclosed
in the twice repeated “I know it.” The
spirit speaks with all the authority of God, for the believer’s spiritual life is
the life of God.
“... he also shall
become a people.” Since Manasseh
represents the natural in contrast with the spiritual, he represents the nation of
Israel as a physical entity made up of believers and unbelievers alike.
As such, Israel has been increased, and will be still further increased in the
Millennium.
... and shall be
great.” This was partially
fulfilled in the days of Solomon, but there will be a greater fulfillment in
the Millennium when Israel will be the greatest of all the nations.
The superiority of the
spiritual over the natural, however, is emphasized in its being said that “his
younger brother shall be greater than he.” And
while it was said that Manasseh “shall become a people,” it is significant that
with regard to Ephraim it is said that “his seed shall become a multitude of
nations.” That “seed” is Christ Who came of the line of faith which Ephraim
represents. Spiritual Israel consists,
not just of one, but of a multitude of nations - those that will go from the
Tribulation into the millennial kingdom.
48:20.
“And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying,
God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.”
Beyond the literal use
of their names as a formula by which future generations would pronounce a blessing on
others, lies a spiritual truth. There is
blessing for everyone willing to follow the path marked out in the meaning of those
names. There will be fruitfulness as we
are willing to forget those things which are behind, and reach forth unto those
things which are before, pressing “toward the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God” (Php 3:13-14).
48:21.
“And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and
bring you again unto the land of your fathers.”
In its being said that
it was Israel rather than Jacob who was about to die, we learn the truth that earthly
experience ends not only for believers physically, but spiritually also.
Earth is not to be the eternal scene of the believers new spiritual life.
Heaven, not earth, is our home. This
is emphasized in Israel’s declaration that God would bring Joseph and his
descendants out of Egypt “unto the land of your fathers.”
For Israel the nation, the Millennium will not be the end of her blessing:
millennial blessedness will be followed by greater blessings connected with a new
heavens and a new earth.
48:22.
“Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took
out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”
In connection with
that foretold return, Joseph was assured that he had been given a double portion in
the land of Canaan, for by Jacob’s adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh, the meaning of
Joseph’s name let him add, was given practical expression - he had
become two tribes instead of one. In
this we see the symbolic announcement of the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is
the King of Israel, is King also of the Gentile nations.
The Hebrew word
translated portion, is Shekem, literally shoulder.
It refers to the area in which the city of Shechem was located, where Joseph
was buried, Jos 24:32. It is the same
place that is called Sychar in Jn 4:5, where the story centers around the well that
Jacob had dug there. In his being given
this special portion of Shechem therefore, Joseph is made lord of strength and life,
for Shechem shoulder is the Biblical symbol of strength, as the well is of
life. (The well represents the Word, and
it is the Word (Christ) that gives life).
The only other
reference to Jacob’s acquisition of Shechem is when his sons slew the Shechemites
to avenge the defilement of their sister Dinah, ch.34.
This present reference to his having taken it “out of the hand of the
Amorite with my sword and with my bow” is generally believed to refer to a later
conquest in which he recovered it from other Amorites who probably settled there
after his departure from the place following his sons’ slaughter of the Shechemites.
There can be no doubt
that there is spiritual significance connected with the mention of this unrecorded
battle, in which Jacob, with his sword and bow, took Shechem from the Amorites.
It may be in fact that God is giving us a glimpse of Calvary.
Joseph, as his son, is but the perpetuation of Jacob the two are one, as it
were for since Joseph is a type of Christ, so then also is Jacob.
In the context of this verse, however, Joseph represents Christ in
resurrection, while Jacob represents Him in His death.
As it was Jacob who won Shechem that has now become the possession of Joseph,
so was it Christ crucified Who won what is now the possession of Christ resurrected. But in addition to capturing Shechem, Jacob had also dug a well
there. Shechem represents the place of
strength and safety, and the well represents the Word.
The believer, a joint heir with Christ, has been given “Shechem” (strength
and safety), and he has been given also an unfailing well (the Word) from which to
draw “water” for refreshment and cleansing.
The weapons used by
Jacob to capture Shechem were “my sword and my bow.”
I regret being unable to interpret the spiritual significance of the bow, but
the sword is the Biblical symbol of the Word as a spiritual weapon.
It was by His perfect obedience to the Word, His perfect fulfillment of all
that had been written concerning Him, that the Lord vanquished the “Amorite”
(Satan), and won “Shechem” - a “Shechem” that is now also ours as being one
with Him.
[Genesis 49]
