Leah's Sons: Genesis 49:1-15
God can take an unwanted person and make great things come from an undesirable situation. This is redemption. We all have our problems. We all have characteristics that make us undesirable. God takes us, casts aside our undesirable characteristics, and redeems us into something beautiful.
Jacob gathers his sons to bless them before he dies. For many of these sons, we don’t get a genuine blessing. Rather, we get an explanation of their character. In many cases the character displayed by the son of Jacob becomes a typecast for the entire tribe.
For example, take Reuben. Jacob doesn’t bless Reuben at all. Jacob mourns what could have been. Reuben was the first. He could have been mighty and powerful. Instead, Jacob lost faith in him because he tried to usurp Jacob’s power by claiming Bilhah as his own. Jacob never forgot the act, and it shows in this epitaph. Looking to the future, there are few positive mentions of Reuben in the rest of the Bible and the tribe of Reuben voluntarily chooses to take possession of land technically not a part of the inheritance of Abraham!
Simeon and Levi come next. Jacob reminds them they have also sinned and Jacob has not forgotten. Because of the act, Jacob refused to allow them to provide counsel. They became overlooked. This also plays out in the future, where the tribe of Simeon is all but absorbed into the people of Judah. The Levites aren’t even given a territory to call their own, but rather are given cities scattered throughout Israel in which they are to dwell.
The fourth son to be mentioned is Judah, whom Jacob seems to have forgiven. Judah initially bore Jacob’s wrath, but Jacob can now see how God worked through Judah’s action to bring good out of it. This doesn’t eliminate the sinfulness of Judah’s act, but it does modify the long-term consequences. As a result, Judah became the spokesperson for the family. Judah’s tribe will maintain this role and eventually the kings of Israel will come from Judah.
Jacob then mentions Zebulun and Issachar. These remaining sons of Leah have largely played a supporting role in the story, a role which remains into the future. The tribes of Issachar and Zebulun will be quick to come to the aid of the judges when the Hebrew people try to subdue the land. They will build cities along the coast to allow wealth to flow into the land through trade. They are supporting cast, but that role does not make them unimportant.
What can we take away from this? The sons of Leah were truly hit or miss. The significantly rebellious ones all came from Leah and were the oldest of the sons. However, the younger sons fared significantly better. Leah’s lineage will see both the kingly line and the priestly line come from it. God can take an unwanted person and make great things come from an undesirable situation.
