Jacob gave his son Naphtali a most unusual blessing: “You’re a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns,” Genesis 49:21. And that was it, no more said, leaving us scratching our heads wondering what Jacob meant.
But tie it in with Jesus’ ministry, much of which was done in the land of Naphtali, and a picture emerges from Jacob’s prediction that describes Jesus’ ministry perfectly. Jesus truly was “a doe set free,” springing into action right after “John was put in prison” to “proclaim the good news of God” in Galilee, the land of Naphtali, in Mark 1:14.
This would tie in with the “bears beautiful fawns” in Jacob’s prediction too, because in Hebrew it can also mean “gives words of beauty,” which is exactly what Jesus began doing in verse 15, when he came roaring out of the shadows like a deer leaping out of the forest crying out, “The time has come; the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.”
So instead of just putting up with “walking in darkness” and being pushed this way and that by the prevailing winds of the culture – and never knowing or expecting anything better either – it was time for people to “repent” of all that and listen to what he had to say, because if they did they’d get the chance to enter a new world, the evidence of which he immediately made clear by the most extraordinary things he was teaching and doing.
It worked too, because “News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee” (28). People “came to him from everywhere” (45), because they’d never heard such teaching, or seen such healing power in a human before (1:27, 2:12). So when he returned to Capernaum “a few days later and the people heard he’d come home” (2:1), they were desperate to hear more, so “he preached the word to them” (2).
There was something in what he taught, therefore, that turned the lights on to the possibility of another world in operation, that was so much more lovely than the only world these people had known. It was a world where “Repent” meant “Clue in to the good news, folks, and see what it does for you,” which Jesus made clear when he told a paralytic he’d just healed, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (2:5). That was different, and extremely good to know. But that was the kingdom of God, because “the words of beauty” Jacob promised Naphtali, were “Meant to have an impact”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 