"(From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel)" Genesis 49:24
IF our previous parenthesis was simple in the extreme, this one is highly mysterious. The main statement as to Joseph's arms being strengthened by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob seems clear enough; it gives a vivid picture of young Joseph learning to shoot with a bow and arrow. Lacking strength in himself he is aided by his father Jacob who, standing behind him and enfolding the puny arms of his son by his own powerful arms and clasping the boy's weak hands in his own strong ones, so enables Joseph to fire the shot. Hand on hand, they together grasped the arrow and hand on hand they drew back the bow to such effect that the arrow sped effectively to its mark.
I CAN appreciate this since I have watched a Red Indian father operate in this way, stretching his strong arms alongside his boy's little ones and grasping the small hands in his capable grip, so bending the bow and shooting the arrow, to the great delight of the little learner.
WHAT old Jacob did literally for young Joseph, the Mighty One of Jacob had done spiritually for the mature man of whom it could rightly be said that "his bow abode in strength". But why this parenthesis about the shepherd and the stone?
IT clearly points onward to the Lord Jesus who is both the Shepherd and the Stone of Israel. In his separation, sufferings and exaltation, Joseph provides an outstanding type of Christ. Does this bracketed sentence, then, draw attention to this likeness? If so, it suggests that Christ's gracious shepherding and His powerful reliability function in harmony with the divine enabling received from on high; it was the Father's hands which supported and sustained the nail-pierced hands of Jesus.
IN the New Testament there is a passage which speaks comfortingly and encouragingly of God's strong hands and unites the Father and the Son in what we might call a double grip. When the Lord Jesus gave His well-known description of Himself as the Good Shepherd, He made the claim that He and the Father are one (John 10:30).
THIS followed His positive assurance that the believer is securely held by Himself and His Father: "No-one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, which hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no-one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand" (vv.28-29). This is gloriously true, even if it is not just what Jacob meant when he gave his blessing to Joseph.
FOR us there can be no doubt at all who is the Shepherd and the Stone -- or Rock -- of Israel. Jacob's Rock and Joseph's is the same as ours -- the wonderful Rock of Ages. Trusting in Him, we know blessings "unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills" (Genesis 49:26).
