Moses’ last words before he died are recorded in Deuteronomy 33. At the end of 120 years of a rich and full life, he seals his life testimony by pronouncing blessings upon each of the twelve tribes of Israel. For many years I glossed over chapters like these. Although I valued them as God’s word, their relevance seemed remote for an American like me living in the 21st century. I mean, what have I to do with a promised blessing to a tribe of Israel going into the Promised Land?
Light has been dawning on my heart how this all exalts Jesus Christ and my relationship with Him.
Jesus is the new Moses. Moses himself prophesied of a new Moses: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him” (Deut. 18:15). The apostle Peter quoted this ancient prophecy in Acts 3:22, applying it to the Lord Jesus. Jesus said, “One greater than Solomon is here.” The writer of Hebrews said in essence: “One greater than Moses is here.” “For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house” (Heb. 3:3).
As Moses’ final act before leaving earth had to do with blessing God’s people, so too with our Lord Jesus. As He ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives, Jesus assumed the posture of priestly blessing. “Then [Jesus] led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. And while he was blessing them, he left them and was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:50-51).
The new Moses pronounces a greater blessing. “Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?” (2Co 3:7-8). Jesus, the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit exercises a more glorious ministry of blessing than Moses.
First the natural, then the spiritual (1Co 15:46). First the shadow, then the substance (Col 2:17). The law came through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (Jn 1:17). Heb 8 – Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant based on better promises than Moses ever could.
When we look at Moses’ blessing on the tribes of Joseph, it’s immediate application indeed is for an earthly blessing. These tribes, on the cusp of entering the Promised Land after 40 years of wilderness wandering, were ready to take possession.
May his land be blessed by the Lord
Deut. 33:13-16
with the dew of heaven’s bounty
and the watery depths that lie beneath;
with the bountiful harvest from the sun
and the abundant yield of the seasons;
with the best products of the ancient mountains
and the bounty of the eternal hills;
with the choice gifts of the land
and everything in it;
and with the favor of him
who appeared in the burning bush.
May these rest on the head of Joseph,
on the brow of the prince of his brothers.
Let’s take a quick survey of the shadow blessing offered to Joseph and see how richly it is gloriously fulfilled in Jesus Christ to all His people.
May his land be blessed by the Lord. The Jews had a physical land. In Christ our “land” is Christ Himself, the “land of milk and honey.” All those riches depicted by the Promised Land are shadows of spiritual realities that are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, who is the sum and substance of all shadows. May God bless our inheritance in the fullness of Christ, enjoying and celebrating the righteousness, peace and joy of the kingdom He offers freely to us in Him.
The dew of heaven’s bounty. In a dry land like Palestine, we don’t often realize how critical dew was to maintaining the nourishment of the land. Dew is a picture of the Spirit, silently at work, distilling, almost unnoticed. He is a heavenly dew to our parched souls, renewing and refreshing us in our relationship with Christ.
The watery depths beneath. Jesus came to bring us this water, as identified in John 4. Jacob had gifted his son Joseph with this well, commonly called “Jacob’s Well” by Christians, although technically it is Joseph’s well, the “watery depths beneath”. Jesus blesses us with the living waters. “The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14).
Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” As you spend time meditating on Joseph’s blessing, think with the mind of Christ in light of “every spiritual blessing.” The blessing Moses bestows on Joseph was so lavish: “…bounty…bountiful…abundant…best…bounty…choice…everything…favor.” How much more so in Jesus Christ!
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.
2Co 1:19-20 ESV
Ask the Lord to reveal His heart of abundant blessing to you in these parting words of Moses to Joseph as it is fulfilled in all its spiritual dimensions in Him.
Glory Unveiled: Discovering Jesus 