Jacob's Blessing

Jocob's  Blessing

There is a slight sound distortion in the last 15 minutes of the original audio recording

Twelve Sons  — Twelve Tribes

Uranda April 30, 1953

And so we come to the concluding day of April, in the Year of our LORD one thousand nine hundred and fifty-three, April 30th, in our G-P-C Servers Training Class. And we could perhaps spend another hour in consideration of some of the factors contained in the material which we have covered; but I think, for the moment at least, we will leave that part of the picture and consider the Principle of Blessing.

The purpose of our study and training is to reach a point where we can let the Blessings of God find positive expression through us to the children of men, and when, as a server, you do, or you will, give an attunement, you are acting as a channel for the release of God's blessings—the reality of blessing to others. That blessing can manifest through you only as the instrument is functioning correctly. We begin to realize that with respect to everyday things we accept the necessity of precision, of correct use of instruments, or mechanisms, or control. If we are going to turn the radio on, we turn a certain knob in a certain direction. If you go to shift gears in a car, you do not put it into reverse when you want it to go ahead. We could find innumerable illustrations in our daily life, all around us, of the necessity of exactness, of correct function.

We need to begin to recognize that, with respect to correct function in a spiritual sense, in practical living, we need to be exact; there needs to be a preciseness. We need to recognize that laws and principles are involved, and that we must function in a certain way to secure a certain result. It is not a haphazard thing and it is not subject to human opinions. Regardless of human opinions, if you are going to drive your car correctly you have to use the principles involved by the makers of that car; and if you disregard them you are going to be in trouble. And you could express all kinds of beliefs contrariwise and it would get you nowhere.

We are studying the design and the functional specifications with respect to a particularized mechanism—the human being. God is the maker of that mechanism, and we have to understand it, we have to function correctly in relationship to it, if we are going to secure the necessary result. And these things are not subject to human opinion, belief, concept. It takes precision. And once we begin to realize the nature of the Divine Pattern, the Divine Design, begin to realize the nature of the function, the working of the Center of Deity which provides you with the opportunity of life, you can begin to deliberately do as the Lord does.

We recognize the process of centering which the Lord, or your own focalization of Deity, maintains. You begin to share that which the Lord is doing; and even though it be as a little child at first, without excellent coordination, more or less stumblingly, ineffectively, you persist as the little child in its process of emulating its elders; you begin to function in alignment, in harmony with the action of God Being, and you find that you begin to share Divine Action. It is there to share. We do not have to get it, we do not have to create it, we simply have to function according to the basis of our own design, the design of our own beings, and then that which already is begins to manifest through us. And when that which is, is manifesting through us, we are unified in the pattern of expression with the Creator. The expression from God, through us into the world, begins to have true meaning, and we begin to be in position where we can bless others.

I have known people who felt it was a bit on the presumptuous side on my part when I expressed a current of blessing to them, taking the attitude that a man cannot bless anyone else. Well, a man can be a means by which the Blessing of God appears, and if we are functioning in the consciousness of sharing that which is of God, and we are correctly polarized, we can bless others.

The first recorded patterns of attunement, the first historical record of the use of the principles of attunement, come to us through the Book of Genesis—the process of blessing others. The patriarchs of old were in the habit of receiving their sons or daughters, or those who responded. It manifested in various ways. They were used to kneeling before the patriarch, having him place his hands upon their heads and blessing them. And this process has continued, to some extent, down through the centuries, in various ways, but the essence of its meaning has been to such a degree lost. We recognize that there are certain religions in the world where the idea of blessing others is recognized, and one of these is with respect to the Roman Catholic Church. And there are various methods or ways that have been utilized in relationship to conveying that idea or spirit of blessing, or in some cases we might say the reality of blessing; but it is quite a far cry from the method that is used by the Pope, for instance—being carried through a crowd, at the time of a papal audience, on his chair or throne and using a twig to scatter blessings in all directions upon all the people gathered around, which is primarily a symbol of blessing according to the idea that is conveyed.

But the reality of the actual conveying of a blessing by action and word in a manner which recognizes the depth of character and nature, recognizes the reality of the individual, what his tendencies are, and in a sense carries the ability to anticipate what would probably work out in the given life—we have certain pictures of the reality of such blessing in the Bible, the process of conveying an attunement, and in our consideration of this story of Joseph we come to one of those illustrations in specific form. We will begin at the 48th Chapter of Genesis:

“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. And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.”

“And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, 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. 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.

“And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance. And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem”—the same is Bethlehem—“And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these? 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.

“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. And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath shewed me also thy seed. And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. 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. "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.”

That meant that Joseph had brought them so that if Israel had put his hands straight out they would have rested upon the heads of the sons, the right hand upon the eldest and the left upon the youngest. And Israel crossed his hands, so, so as to place his left hand upon the head of the eldest and his right hand upon the head of the younger.

“And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abrahm and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day. The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

“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. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. 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. 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.

“And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. 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.”

And then the pattern of blessing continues in relationship to all of Jacob's sons, and it is a most interesting pattern. I think, in order to begin to get the whole picture clearly in mind, I will first read the passage in the 49th Chapter of Genesis, and you will find, in the days to come, in the patterns of your meditation, that there is much that is worthy of meditation in this 49th Chapter of Genesis: “And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.”

Now here we have an interesting statement. The 49th Chapter of Genesis and there is the expression with respect to “that which shall befall you in the last days.” Now, it does not say, “in the last days of your lives,” or, “in the rest of your lives.” It says, “in the last days.” Now there are two things which could conceivably, if we were meditating upon the subject, be indicated—and I suppose all of you have recognized them immediately—two things that could be indicated: either the expression, “the last days,” as utilized in the Bible, has been arbitrarily interpreted as meaning something which is not meant; or else there is something in this passage which actually relates to the last days.

And then, in such meditation, we immediately raise the question in our own minds, “What are the last days? The last days of what? The last days of their lives?” It does not specifically say so. One could assume that, but it would be an assumption. The last days of what? The last days of the rule of evil? The last days of man's self-activity upon the earth, so that the pattern could be restored in outer living to the Divine Design? I think that our previous meditations have provided a basis for believing, accepting, the idea that the Biblical expression, “the end of the world,” or, “the last days,” or anything of that nature, does not mean the end of the earth. It does not mean the end of man's living on earth. It means the end of the world which man has made, or the last days of self-activity.

We have heard the expressions, “the last days” of something or other, as we speak of it in the past, but, the last days. If we are living in “the last days,” and if we are functioning correctly, we are dedicated to the work which will make them the last days. We are concerned with the last days of evil, the last days of man's self-activity, the last days of man's distortion, which prevents the manifestation of the things of God on earth—not the end of the earth, not the end of man's living on earth, but the end of man's self-active rebellion against God. So, naturally, in the pattern of meditation, we begin this consideration with a recognition that there could be, presumably, something here that would relate to the last days of these men as such. But there could be something that relates to the last days of man's self-activity, the last days of man's wandering in the wilderness away from God, the last days of man's uncertainty on earth. And so, there is immediately in the first expression, the first verse, that which should open our eyes and make us recognize that there are possibilities here.

“Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear.” Now that expression is repeated twice. Immediately, in the pattern of meditation where we find anything repeated twice we stop and take an extra look at it. If we do not, we are not meditating. He opens his statement, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days,” and then he said, “Gather yourselves together, and hear”—that suggests a number of things which I will leave to your own patterns of meditation—"and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.”

“Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.”

“Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self will they digged down a wall”—And in their self will they digged down a wall—“Simeon and Levi are brethren: instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.”

“Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.”

“Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be as for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.”

“Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.”

“Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.”

“Gad, a troop shall overcome him; but he shall overcome at the last.”

“Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.”

“Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words.”

“Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: 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:) 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 undo, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

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.”

“Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.”

“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. 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, 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 burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 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.”

Is that not a remarkable chapter, just on the face of it? I suppose you have all read it before, but as we have approached it in our meditations, and as you listened to it expressed in words, you can sense that here is something that is peculiar at least, in its nature. Here is something that gives you the sense of the reality of blessing, the reality of power. It makes you feel that this man, who was about to leave this sphere of things, was not just speaking words. He said something which contains within it the reality of wisdom and power. He is revealing something. And if he revealed something then, for the people of that day, perhaps there is something here for us—“that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.”

One of the interesting things that immediately comes to consciousness as we meditate here, is the fact that for all these years Benjamin had been his favourite son. He had assumed that Joseph was dead, and Jacob's whole life was bound up in his youngest son, his baby son. And he was concerned about this young man, and yet when it came to the time of blessing he said, “Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf.” What does that tell us in the patterns of our meditation ? It tells us, on the face of it, written in bold letters so that all can see, that one thing is certain. When Jacob was speaking these words he was not being influenced by prejudice, or favoritism, or personal preference. We see it written a bold hand, across the face of this whole portrayal; for Benjamin had been his favorite baby son. And the moment we start considering these words that is one of the first things that comes up to point in the pattern of meditation; for we remember the setting, and how Jacob loved Benjamin, and then in the pattern of the blessing, just before he was to leave this sphere of things, he says, “Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.” So there was no pattern of favoritism, prejudice. He was speaking without regard to any personal feelings which he might have had as a man. And if that be the case, then from whence did these words come? That is the next natural step in meditation, is it not?

We recognize that these words did not come from the warped heart of an old man, prejudiced, and with years of favoritism back of him. From whence did the words come? The very nature of their pattern shows that they came from the Divine Source—from God. Well then, if these words were from God, through the lips of Jacob, at the conclusion of Jacob's long life, surely they must have some meaning for us; for the words of God are timeless words. The words of God are timeless words. That suggests particularized channels of meditation. The words of God are timeless words. The words of God are timeless words. And we remember as we meditate, these words, “And there shall be time no more.” The words of God are timeless words. And there shall be time no more. If the words of God are timeless words, they are words of meaning in all time; for man has designed, in self-activity, a pattern of consciousness which makes it appear that such and such a thing has value for a season, for a time, and then has no value; that something back in history had value for a time and then ceased to have value, like the story in Genesis, like the words of this 49th Chapter. 

The words of God are Timeless Words, but there shall be Time No More

If there is to be time no more, then the nature of man is to become like the nature of God's words; and if man is a Word, the Words of God are timeless words; and if man is a Word of God, then man is, in a true sense, timeless. “And there shall be time no more”—time no more, in the sense in which man uses it in division. The cycles of eternity continue because God is eternal. So, the statement, “And there shall be time no more,” cannot possibly mean that everything starts standing still. Time, as we think of it, will still be passing, but that which is will be timeless in the sense of its enduring nature. And these words of God must have value to us. The words of God are timeless words, and man is supposed to be a Word of God. A Word of God. So, man should be timeless. Here, in this pattern of blessing and cursing—“cursed be their undoing”—in this pattern of blessing and cursing, outlining “that which shall befall you in the last days.” That which shall befall you in the last days. Now when we read those words it did not say so much about how they would die, or where. There is not very much given there with respect to the last days of the men.

“Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies.” “Judah is a lion's whelp.” And then, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come.” Until Shiloh come—that obviously is extending it beyond the range of any one man's life, and there is something more than just a tribal pattern here. It obviously has depth. It provides us with an opportunity of beginning to let the layers turn, as the pages of a book, so that we may see more deeply into the significance of the timeless words of God that came through the lips of Jacob. “A lawgiver.” We have heard it said that some people call Jesus a Jew; and they have assumed that He had to be, that it was prophesied: “Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come.” But it did not say, did it, that Shiloh would come through him?—only that it would be so, “until Shiloh come.”

And we remember over here he was talking about Joseph—he had quite a bit to say about Joseph—“Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well—a well, that is a place of water—"whose branches run over the wall”—the wall. A wall is a means of division or a means separation; but the branches of Joseph run over the wall, the wall of separation or division. That could apply perhaps in many ways. Let us see; “Whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: 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:)—"from thence”—from Joseph—“is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above.” Shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above—the blessings of heaven above are supposed to appear on earth.

The blessings of Heaven above are supposed to appear on earth—"blessings of the deep that lieth under”—those blessings then should come up from under—“blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills”—unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. Now there is something that shows us that it applies without respect to time. “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”—separate from his brethren.

He had quite a bit to say about Joseph

Now there was a time of separation when he was sold, and there was a time of separation, in a sense, while Joseph was Lord of Egypt; but obviously that pattern of separation, that pattern of separation from his brethren, was not adequate to the nature of this particular expression. It is obvious that it extended from that point which was then, into what was then the future; and this is now that which was then the future. This that is now was then the future. “The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors utno the utmost bound of the everlasting hills”—the everlasting hills—the utmost bound. “They shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown"—on the crown of the head—“on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.” There is surely much here for consideration.

“Gather yourselves together.” It is stated twice. “Gather yourselves together, and hear.” Now actually, that is important, is it not, because very often people say something but nobody hears it. Oh, they hear the words for the moment, but they are gone; they are forgotten; they cease to have any meaning. But, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear”—and hear. So if we hear, there must of necessity be a pattern of comprehension. If we just hear words, that is not true hearing. If we are to hear, there must be understanding of the words spoken—understanding, comprehension, recognition. “And hearken unto Israel your father.” Israel means the Chosen Son of God. Israel means the Chosen Son, or Sons, of God. And hearken unto the Chosen Son of God, your Father. “Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel, the chosen son of God, your father. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength”—“my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.” My might, and the beginning of strength.

These words are timeless words. They must not be limited merely to Jacob as a man. We must begin to see them in relationship to what he has already said, with respect to the latter days. “Gather yourselves together.” Hearken to the Chosen Son of God, your Father. “Thou art my firstborn.” Might and strength, the beginning of strength. Might, the beginning of strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. These are outlined specifically: Might, the beginning of strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. But if they are to have relationship—wait a minute now, and look at this pattern here. If we are careful in meditation: “Hearken unto Israel your father”—the Chosen Son of God, your Father—not to Jacob—the Son of God, your Father. Your Father is a Son of God.

Your Father is a Son of God. That is what it says. Your Father is a Son of God. It says, “my”. “Hearken to your father, the son of God,” and your Father, the Son of God, says, “my”—“my might.” Oh, this is not talking about Jacob, then. It is talking about your Father, your Father within, your Father in Heaven, your Lord, your Son of God. It is talking about your Son of God. And it says, “my might,” the might of the Father, of the Son of God, “the beginning of my strength”—you, you the firstborn, the expression of my being, “my might”, says the Chosen Son of God, the Father of the one who hears.

Thou art mine firstborn, the beginning of the manifestation of myself, my might, and the beginning of my strength. And where is strength needed? It is on earth, is it not? The Chosen Son of God, the Father, needed the opportunity to express strength on earth; so, that which is the beginning of the revelation, the firstborn, is likewise the beginning of my strength, sayeth the Son of God, your Father. “My might, the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity”—the excellency of dignity.

Well then, the excellency of dignity is supposed to appear in the firstborn—in the firstborn—that which comes first. The firstborn is that which comes first from the Father, the Son of God—the Lord, the Father, the Son of God—that which comes first. What was it came first? What was it came first? We can say the spirit comes first, but then that does not answer the question. What was it came first? Man—the beginning of man—Adam—Adam and Eve. Adam, the beginning, the firstborn—Adam. “My might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.” There is the picture, because man fell. Man began, as the Son of the Son of God. Man began as the Son, the Son of God, the reality of God's might on earth, in the Beginning of His Strength, the Excellency of Dignity, and the Excellency of Power. But man fell—unstable as water—man fell.

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