A Father’s Last Words.

Jacob is dying, and he knows it. His sons also know it.

If you have known what it is to sit with a parent at the end of their life and hear them speak hope and vision to you, then this is the image we have this morning.

“Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. ² “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.” (Genesis 49 v 1-2)

Jacob has wrestled all his life with God, with men and even himself. In the last moments of his life, he had something to say.

Notice he names himself twice. He calls himself Jacob, but also father Israel.

The deceiver Jacob and the man God made him (Israel) are there as one man. He is not erasing the man he was. He is simply saying, ‘This is who I was, and this is who God made me.’  Even more important, he says he has something left to give, one more thing before he leaves this earth.

In his mind are ‘the days to come’. Jacob knows there is more. The next generation will carry the story forward as he bows out in this chapter. He has certainly not lived a perfect life, far from it. But he still believes, and he still has hope for what is to come.

That is something we all should aim for.