And of Joseph he said, “Blessed by the Lord be his land, with the choicest gifts of heaven above, and of the deep that crouches beneath, with the choicest fruits of the sun and the rich yield of the months, with the finest produce of the ancient mountains and the abundance of the everlasting hills, with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favour of him who dwells in the bush. May these rest on the head of Joseph, on the pate of him who is prince among his brothers.  A firstborn bull—he has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he shall gore the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth; they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh” (Deuteronomy 33:13-17).

The next blessing is the longest and concerns the tribe of Joseph (vs13-17).  The blessing is very similar to the blessing Jacob gives concerning Joseph in Genesis 49:22-26.   The size of the blessing here indicates the importance and position that the tribe had among the tribes in regard to its status and its territory.

The blessing starts with an emphasis on the Lord’s provision through nature, His control over it and that He would bless the tribe through this provision (vs13-16a).  This is in direct contrast to the beliefs of the people of the land who believed Baal controlled the weather.  So, this blessing teaches God’s complete sovereignty over all of His creation.  This was in marked contrast to the supposed regional deities of the land like Baal who specialised in one area of controlling the cosmos.  No doubt this was a fitting blessing for the tribe whose patriarch, Joseph, had provided food for Egypt and the surrounding nations as well as being the means of preservation for God’s people.

This first section ends by referring to God’s favour being shown to the tribe with a reference to the burning bush (v16) that Moses encountered in the desert of Sinai (Exodus 3:2).  Because of the nature of the Hebrew some commentators have argued the emphasis of the passage cannot be on the Lord being present in the burning bush, but the significance of the area where Moses met Him.[1]  Yet others see no textual support for this. But, however you interpreted it, what is interesting is why this particular illustration of God meeting Moses is here, as this is the only other reference to it in the Old Testament?  I would surmise it is for the following reason; this was a reminder of God reconnecting with His people.  At the start of Exodus, Israel as a nation seems disconnected from God and from Ezekiel 20:7-8 we see the sad state that Israel had slipped into with the worship of false gods and idolatry being rampant in their religious practice.  Yet God met with Moses in a remarkable way through the burning bush, and this was the start of the Lord reconnecting with His people.

Also, it was at Sinai that the Lord entered into a covenant with His people.  ‘It was because of those great moments in the past that the tribe of Joseph would experience in the future the blessing of God in the land of promise.’[2]  Hence, the significance of the event! The Lord had not forgotten His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and, what was more important, He was going to keep them!

The second part of the blessing (vs16b-17) relates to the tribe’s military might which would be so essential in the conquest of the land and the protection of it afterwards.  This was to be part the Lord’s blessing and his ‘favour’ towards them as a tribe.  The illustration of the tribe’s military prowess is graphically illustrated as being like that of a: ‘firstborn bull’.  The picture here is of an animal that is the strongest in its family and that nothing can withstand.  In the same sense Moses prays that nothing will be able to stand against the tribe of Joseph.  The passage ends with a reference to: ‘the ten thousands of Ephraim’ and: ‘the thousands of Manasseh.’  By this, Moses emphasises the pre-eminence of Ephraim, despite the fact that Manasseh was the first born of Joseph sons, the numbers, being symbolic, reinforce this and give credence to Jacob’s blessing and prophecy in Genesis 48:14-20.

This blessing has much to teach the church today.  Although we do not believe in a ‘Wealth, health and prosperity gospel’ and we do not seem to be living in a time of great revival at this moment, God wants to bless us spiritually with a greater knowledge and belief in Him. He wants us, because of this, to live as a triumphant people.  But most of the time we do anything but!  We focused too much on the world and live in a way that suggests we are beset on each side and that we are an irrelevance to the world in general!  True, we do face real spiritual opposition and the fight is hard.  But to quote a major theme in Deuteronomy, it is the Lord who fights the battle, and He is calling us to be obedient.  One-day God will be seen to be triumphant overall.  That means we worship a victorious God and if that’s true we will be seen as His victorious people!

[1] J.A. Thompson, Deuteronomy, An Introduction and Commentary (Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press, 1974) 130.
[2]Peter. C Craige, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Eerdmans publishing co, Michigan, 1976) 398.