And by the precious fruits of the sun, And by the precious things put forth by the months,
Moses' last words over Joseph promise a land full of blessing. This line looks up at the sky — the sun that ripens the crop, and the yield that keeps coming month after month — and the writers ask who stands behind it.
The blessing on Joseph piles up pictures of a land bursting with crops. One writer traces that harvest to God's smile, and names the person who brings it down.
Under the smile of God the whole of the fruitful land breaks out into a varied and continuous harvest. The good will of Him who dwelt in the bush crowns, as with a royal crown, the head of the one set apart to God, and so set apart from his brothers. Clearly it is Christ who brings the blessing down in this way. Moses' words here confirm what Jacob said.
Rain alone is not enough to ripen a crop. One writer reads both the sun and the month-by-month yield as pictures of the Lord Jesus.
As well as moisture, the sunshine must be added so that there may be precious fruit (v.14). The sun is typical of the Lord Jesus, "the Sun of righteousness" spoken of in Malachi 4:2 as rising on Israel with healing in His wings. "The precious produce of the months" connects with Revelation 22:2, though that verse refers to the Lord Jesus as the Tree of life yielding twelve fruits, one each month. He Himself, the Tree of life, will be in heaven, in the midst of the Assembly, the Church of God. The twelve fruits are for Israel, while the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the Gentile nations. Wonderful prosperity!
Joseph's blessing grows out of what he suffered. The same writer sees that order — pressure first, harvest afterwards — as God's way with Israel too.
Psalm 4:1 tells us, "In pressure You have enlarged me" (Darby's translation). This was beautifully true of Joseph. It also points to the great blessing that Israel will yet receive as a result of their deep pressure of years, ending in the Great Tribulation. God will show how He is able to bring the greatest blessing out of the greatest suffering. This has in fact already been seen in the sufferings of Christ and the great blessing of the Church of God now.
Moses speaks this blessing over one small country. Another writer follows it out past those borders, and says when it will come.
Magnificent range of blessing! And all this flowing from and resting on his sufferings. Of course all these blessings will come true for Israel in due time. The sufferings of the true Joseph will form the lasting foundation of the future blessedness of His brothers in the land of Canaan. And not only that: the tide of blessing, deep and full, shall flow out from that highly favoured though now desolate land, in refreshing power into all the earth. What a sad mistake to apply such scriptures to the present age of the gospel or to the church of God!
Commentators differ on how far this reaches into the present day. Mackintosh calls it a sad mistake to read such scriptures as a picture of the church. Leslie Grant sees the same principle already at work in the sufferings of Christ and the blessing of the church now.
One writer reads the verse as biography. Before Moses said a word, Joseph had already lived under sun and moon.
Joseph had taken the heat and the cold. Both the sun and the moon had shone on him. He had been able to receive and pass on the precious things of heaven from each. He had received divine energy from his God and radiated that energy back to family and stranger, to prisoner and Pharaoh. He could reveal the precious things of heaven that were hidden from others. There had been no "clouds" between him and his God or those around him. He never seemed in a hurry. He went on quietly and patiently taking both heat and cold — good times and bad — as from his Lord.
One writer borrows the same phrase for John the Baptist, the voice in the wilderness:
His voice might sound out in the wilderness. But his heart lived among the "precious fruits brought forth by the Sun" that shone on him. He was a man "filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb."
- Sun. The sun that ripens the crop pictures the Lord Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, rising with healing in His wings.
- Suffering. The blessing rests on what Joseph lost. God brings the greatest blessing out of the greatest suffering.
- Smile. The harvest comes from the goodwill of the One who dwelt in the bush — it is Christ who brings the blessing down.
- Spread. The tide does not stop at Joseph's border; it flows out from that land into all the earth.
- Steadiness. Joseph took heat and cold alike from his Lord, and passed on to others what he received from heaven.
And by the best things of the ancient mountains, And by the precious things of the everlasting hills,
Verse 15 sits inside Moses' blessing on Joseph, where gift after gift piles onto his land — heaven, dew, deep, sun, moon, and now the mountains and hills. Two questions follow: why do old hills count among the land's best gifts, and why does the whole list land on the head of one man?
Joseph's portion runs longer and richer than his brother Benjamin's. Commentators link that to what Joseph suffered, and they read the blessing as still future.
Much more is said of Joseph, because Benjamin did not go through the deep suffering and pressure that Joseph did. This section speaks of the abundant, fruitful prosperity that Israel will yet enjoy in the age to come… Israel will yet receive great blessing as a result of their deep pressure of years, ending in the Great Tribulation. God will show how He is able to bring the greatest blessing out of the greatest suffering. We have already seen this in the sufferings of Christ and the great blessing of the Church of God now. But Israel will know the value of this only after suffering the ordeal of the tribulation.
The mountains here are not scenery. Grant reads them as a picture of authority older than memory.
Verse 15 adds another lovely feature of the fruitfulness of Israel: "with the best things of the ancient mountains, with the precious things of the everlasting hills." Ancient mountains speak of authority established from time out of mind. Israel will then recognise the Lord Jesus as "the LORD, the King of Israel," "the Redeemer, the LORD of hosts." He says, "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god" (Isa. 44:6). His authority has been His from eternity past. When Israel accepts it, that submission will be a vital part of the fruit they bear for God.
Grant quotes an older translation here. The ESV reads, "with the finest produce of the ancient mountains and the abundance of the everlasting hills."
One writer weighs both where this blessing comes from and how far it reaches.
Magnificent range of blessing! And all of it flowing from and resting on his sufferings… The sufferings of the true Joseph will form the lasting foundation of the future blessedness of His brothers in the land of Canaan; and not only that, but the tide of blessing, deep and full, will flow out from that highly favoured though now desolate land, bringing refreshment to all the earth.
Verses 13–16 pile up the gifts. Verse 16 sets them all "on the head of Joseph." Commentators see Joseph, cut off from his family, as a figure of Christ. He does not only receive.
Joseph, separated from his brothers, is a picture of the Lord Jesus. Through His lonely sufferings and death, He is the great Recipient of all blessing from God. Joseph shared with his brothers the blessing that came to him in Egypt. In the same way, the Lord Jesus will share with Israel all these blessings that make up Joseph's portion.
Commentators differ on how far these promises touch Christians now. Grant goes on to say the Lord shares far more than this with the Church today. Mackintosh calls it a sad mistake to apply such scriptures to the Church at all. For him they belong to Jerusalem, the land, and the earth.
In that older wording, the repeated word through verses 13–16 is "precious." One writer treats the list as an invitation, not a summary.
There is space here for only a passing mention of the "precious things of heaven," the "precious things put forth by the moon," the "precious things of the everlasting hills," and the "precious things of the earth." But a search of Scripture on each one will yield much spiritual joy and substance… Think of the "precious things of heaven." They relate to the sphere "where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." Are they "precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof"? Then again they centre in Him, whose "is the earth and the fullness thereof."
- Pressure first. Joseph suffered the deepest, so his portion is the fullest. God brings the greatest blessing out of the greatest suffering.
- Precious throughout. Heaven, sun, moon, hills and earth are all called precious. Trace each one through Scripture and each centres in Christ.
- Ancient means authority. The ancient mountains stand for authority older than memory. Israel's glad submission to it is part of the fruit they bear.
- Reach without limit. The blessing rests on His sufferings, then flows out from the land to refresh all the earth.
- Shared, not hoarded. Every gift lands on the head of the one cut off from his brothers. Like Joseph in Egypt, He shares all He receives.
And by the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof. And let the good will of him that dwelt in the bush Come upon the head of Joseph, Upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
Moses ends Joseph's blessing with a memory from his own life: the favour of the One who dwells in the bush. All that abundance hangs on one relationship, which raises two questions — what bush, and why does the blessing land on the head of a man cut off from his family?
The phrase points back to the sight that started Moses' service. The commentators below quote older translations. These read "the good will of him who dwelt in the bush," and they describe Joseph as separated from his brothers rather than prince among them.
The thorn bush in which God was pleased to reveal Himself to Moses when He gave him his commission (Exodus 3:2-4). God's presence made it holy ground. The bush burned without being consumed, and that brings out one of His characteristics, for "our God is a consuming fire," burning up the dross without destroying. Moses did not forget the bush: near his death he blessed the twelve tribes and spoke of the "good will of him who dwelt in the bush."
The sign fit the work Moses was sent to do: carry a people through a desert.
The work was to bring the people through a waste, howling wilderness. What sign could be more fitting than a bush blazing yet unconsumed — and still more, "the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush"? Moses himself, "separated from his brothers," could well appreciate its meaning.
The bush pictures a nation in trouble. The good will lies in who stood in the flame with them.
The burning bush is the symbol of God's constant care of Israel, even in the furnace of Egypt. It tells Moses that in all their affliction the Lord had been afflicted, and that the angel of His presence had still preserved them... He "who dwelt in the bush" had a "good will" towards them. For if the Son of God is in the furnace with His people, it is to preserve them.
The fruitfulness promised here grows out of that fire.
Their land, their earthly possession, will bear fruit abundantly because of "the favour of Him who dwelt in the bush."... The burning bush pictures Israel going through the fires of tribulation, but preserved through it. This is another reminder that suffering is the means that finally brings fruit for God.
The word behind "favour" turns up again a few verses later, in the blessing of Naphtali.
"Satisfied with favour." Naphtali enjoyed this, but he did not find it in himself. He found it in Another. For this favour he looked away from self to God. Indeed, this word "favour" is translated in verse 16 as "the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush."
Moses names Joseph as the one set apart from his brothers, and Mackintosh traces what that separation cost him.
Notice the emphatic way Moses speaks of his being separated from his brothers. He was rejected and cast into the pit. He passed, in figure, through the deep waters of death, and so reached the place of dignity and glory. He was raised from the dungeon to be ruler over the land of Egypt, and the preserver and sustainer of his brothers... A striking picture of Him who hung on the cross, lay in the grave, and is now on the throne of the majesty of heaven.
The favour from the bush is what sets that crown in place.
It is the good will of Him who dwelt in the bush that crowns, as with a diadem, the head of the Nazarite, separated to God and so separated from his brothers. It is very plain that Christ brings the blessing down in this way, and that Moses' word here confirms Jacob's.
Joseph kept nothing for himself, and Grant finds the same pattern in Christ.
Joseph shared with his brothers the blessing that came to him in Egypt. In the same way, the Lord Jesus will share with Israel all these blessings named here as Joseph's portion. Today He shares much more than this with the Church of God. He gives her a heavenly inheritance and announces her as His future bride.
Mackintosh traces the blessing back to its foundation, and out to its furthest reach.
Magnificent range of blessing! And all of it flowing from and resting on his sufferings... The sufferings of the true Joseph will be the lasting foundation of the future blessedness of His brothers in the land of Canaan. And not only that: the tide of blessing, deep and full, will flow out from that highly favoured though now desolate land, refreshing all the earth.
- The bush — the phrase sends us to Exodus 3, and Moses, near death, still measures God's kindness by what he saw there.
- The fire — a bush burning yet unconsumed shows God in the furnace with His people, there to preserve and not destroy.
- The favour — "good will" and "favour" translate one word — what you never find in yourself, only in God.
- The head — that favour crowns the one separated from his brothers: rejected, cast into the pit, then raised to glory.
- The fullness — blessing born of suffering does not stay with the sufferer. Christ shares it, and it flows from the land to the whole earth.