In Genesis 49:16, Jacob told his son Dan that his descendants would “provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel.” 

Justice: what a gift to have, the ability to judge people fairly and interpret the law accurately in each person’s situation, without favouring one’s own bias, or pushing the current political narratives or ideological fads. Imagine living in a world with a judicial system like that. Well, God provided such a system for Israel in Dan, because justice is crucial for a nation and its people to be at peace, knowing that they will be fairly treated and real crime will be swiftly dealt with. 

But “judging” for Dan was a foregone conclusion from the day of his birth. His birth mother was Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid, but Rachel named him because in her words, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son (through Bilhah), therefore she called his name Dan” (30:6) – “Dan” meaning “he will judge.” 

What Rachel meant by the word “judge” was connected to “God has judged me” in verse 6, which in turn was connected to “he has also heard my voice.” She had desperately wanted a child, and here she had a son, at last – not quite the natural birth she’d hoped for, but in her mind God had heard her desperation and frustration and in judging her situation this was the answer he’d provided

To Rachel, then, God was the perfect judge of her life. He’d obviously been aware of – and sensitive to – her frustration and sorrow at not being able to bear children herself, so like a lawyer in a court case God had “pleaded her case.” He was on her side, in her corner, totally understanding how she felt. His answer, therefore, had, and would, perfectly fit in with both her need and his plan. 

His plan being to provide Israel with Dan, gifted like himself with good and wise judgment. Or as Jacob later phrased it, Dan would “provide justice for his people.” The Hebrew word for “justice” in that verse is yadin from the root word “din” meaning law or judgement – so Dan would be very good at judging how God’s law applied to a person’s situation. He would be given a sensitivity to a person’s need, and just like God did with Rachel he’d come up with an answer that best suited. 

Is there any evidence in the history of Israel, then, of “Dan’s sensitivity toward the needy”?….(next blog) 

The tribe of Issachar learnt what their God-given gifts were when a situation arose in Israel that needed their gifts for the benefit of the entire nation (1 Chronicles 12:32). It worked that way with Jesus too: God “anointed him with the Holy Spirit and power” in Acts 10:38, gifts that enabled him to “go around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil.” 

So just like the tribe of Issachar, Jesus was gifted with exactly what was needed for the benefit of the people in his day too. Gifted by the Spirit “he preached good news to the poor, healed the brokenhearted, loosed people from their prison of guilt, gave sight to the blind, and freed people from their debilitating burdens,” Luke 4:18.

When he ascended back to heaven, he then began “giving gifts to people,” Ephesians 4:8, to enable us – like himself – to do good and be of service to others (12, 16). We then learn, as needs arise and we find ourselves wanting and able to meet them, what our gifts are. That’s what happened to the tribe of Issachar. They found out they had a gift for “understanding the times and knowing what Israel should do” when a crisis arose that needed such a gift. 

The Spirit is working the same way with us. All sorts of needs arise and “different kinds of service,” 1 Corinthians 12:5, that require “different kinds of gifts,” verse 4. The intent of such gifts is always “for the common good,” verse 7, so where there’s a need there’s someone with a gift to meet it. And really practical gifts too, like “a word of wisdom” (8), where, like the 200 chiefs of Issachar, someone “understands the situation and knows what to do.”

But maybe like Issachar we have no idea what our gifts are, or the help they give to others, until someone tells us. Like the person enduring pain every day who never complains and just studies away trusting God, who has no idea how inspiring their example is. So imagine what it does for them hearing that the gift of endurance God has given them has been of benefit to others. 

But that’s the whole point of God gifting us; it’s to “build us up in love, as each part does its work,” Ephesians 4:16. He’d love us to learn what our gifts are, then, because he gave them to us – just like he gave Issachar their gift, and Jesus his gifts – to do good. To the next tribe of Israel, then, “Dan: the gifted judge”….(next blog)

A rather cryptic prophecy had been made about Issachar in Genesis 49:14-15, that must have made his descendants curious as to what it meant, and could they figure it out from their own experience and history too?

Did they need to figure it out, though? But what if it was meant to be of benefit to all Israel? It would be nice knowing that, wouldn’t it? They could enter each day knowing that God had a specific purpose in mind for them that would be much appreciated by others, that tied in perfectly with God’s plan for Israel too. But that’s exactly what happened to the tribe of Issachar. God had gifted them with insight and wisdom to enable them to meet a crucial need (1 Chronicles 12:32), just as Jacob had predicted when comparing them to a donkey (Genesis 49:14) – donkeys being prized for their ability to know what to do as well.

Imagine, then, knowing that we’ve been gifted by God, and with obvious clues as to what our gifts are too. Well, that’s exactly what Jesus predicted for his disciples in John 14:16-17 – that the Father would give them “another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth,” and that they’d “know” it too (17), “for he (the Spirit) lives with you and will be in you.” 

So Jesus’ disciples would know what God had given them to do because it was the Spirit’s job in them “to make it known to them,” John 16:15. 

God made the tribe of Issachar’s gift known to them as well, as they found themselves with an “understanding of the times and knowing what Israel should do” at a hugely confusing time in Israel’s history. So what gifts from God do we find ourselves with, that also give us the ability to meet a need and benefit others? Paul dropped us a few clues in 1 Corinthians 12, when he wrote about “different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit,” and “to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good,” verses 4 and 7 – just as Issachar’s gift of wisdom and insight was given for the common good of Israel. 

So from Issachar’s example, and from Paul, we can know by the gifts that God’s given us what he’s given us to do – in how our gifts are of benefit to others in some way. It was by need and experience that the tribe of Issachar learnt what their gift was. So is it the same for us, that as needs arise and we find ourselves able and willing to meet them, we’re “Learning what our gifts are” too?….(next blog)

Did Issachar have any idea that one day his descendants would “understand the times and know what Israel should do” in 1 Chronicles 12:32? Or that comparing him to a donkey in Genesis 49:14 was a prophecy that like donkeys the tribe of Issachar would become skilled at reading the circumstances they were in and able to choose the right course of action? 

But that was the skill the tribe of Issachar would provide in the turmoil of 1 Chronicles 10 to 12, when Israel had lost its king. People were flocking to David, but was he really God’s choice? It was a vital tipping point in their history, because it would be David’s lineage that would lead up to the birth of Jesus, so confidence in David as their king was crucial in God’s plan. Which is when the 200 chiefs of Issachar stepped in. They could clearly see David was God’s choice, and their confidence convinced the other tribes. So what Issachar “the clever donkey” turned out to be was essential to God’s plan at that moment. That was the time, in other words, when they completed what God had prepared them for and given them to do.

It was a perfect picture of Jesus one day being able to say to his Father in  John 17:4, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” He played his part to perfection, just as God had the tribe of Issachar play its part to perfection too.

So does the same thing apply to us? Well, Paul did say in Ephesians 2:10, that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” He prepared Issachar in advance, placing his descendants in prime farmland to develop their skill at reading the weather, which plants flourish when and where, and the types of soil that suit which crops best. They grew to know what to do, a learned skill that enabled them to know what Israel should do regarding David as king. And all prepared in advance by God.

God did the same with Jesus. He planned in advance for Jesus to have “the Spirit without limit,” that enabled him to “speak the words of God,” John 3:34, which Jesus then did to perfection (John 17:8). But he also prepared in advance to gift us with the Spirit too (1 Corinthians 12:4-7) to complete what he’s given us to do – “according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,” Ephesians 1:11. But is it important, though, “Knowing what God has given us to do”?….(next blog)

It was God through Joshua who allotted Jacob’s son Issachar the land it got in Canaan. It was prime farmland, so the tribe of Issachar became farmers, and was that by God’s design too? 

Because as farmers they were very much in tune with nature, in how to read the weather, when and where to plant crops to flourish at their best, and what the soil needed to increase its fertility. They learnt to read the signs, or as Jesus put it in Matthew 16:3, when asked by some Pharisees and Sadducees for a sign, he told them, “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky.” They could tell if the weather would be fair or stormy (2). And so could the tribe of Issachar. Being an agricultural community farming the best land in the country, they would have become highly skilled readers of the weather, and aligning their actions with it. 

It sounds like this really was by God’s design then, because the tribe of Issachar became known for “understanding the times and knowing what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). At a time when Israel was in a state of confusion, having lost their king and being turfed out of their land, God had gifted the 200 chiefs of Issachar with a clear insight into where he was taking Israel next, so the other tribes could confidently fall in line with it. 

So has God gifted and prepared some Issachars today too – people who have an insight into what God is up to in our world and know precisely what’s needed to align ourselves with it? 

Well, Jesus expected it of those in his day who were supposed to know “the signs of the times” in Matthew 16:3. But they totally missed the obvious signs of that time, that Jesus was the one God was revealing himself and his purpose in. It’s not surprising, then, that Paul kept asking  the Father to give the people in his care “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better,” Ephesians 1:17. Meaning that any of us can be an Issachar, and know what God is up to and align ourselves with it. 

So we’re paddling in the same canoe as donkeys and the tribe of Issachar. God equipped them with the ability to tune in to their circumstances and know the wisest action to take, and now he’ll do the same thing for us, just as he did for Jesus, so that like him we are “Completing what God’s given us to do”….(next blog)

The Israelite tribe of Issachar had a wonderful gift that enabled them to “understand the times and know what Israel should do,” 1 Chronicles 12:32. It was at a needy time too. The Israelites had been soundly defeated by the Philistines, and Saul, the first king of Israel, had killed himself, all three of his sons had been killed in battle, “and all his house died together” (10:1-7), leaving no heir to the throne. The Israelites fled their towns too, and the Philistines had moved in and occupied them (7). 

There was this other chap, though, David, who’d gained quite a reputation as a fearless warrior during Saul’s reign, so “All Israel came together to David” (11:1) believing that God had chosen him “to shepherd Israel and be their ruler” (2). So the elders of Israel anointed him to be the next king (3). 

But had they taken into account that David had sided with the Philistines against Saul? David and his 600 men and their families had actually lived in the land of the Philistines too, for over a year (1 Samuel 27:1-7). And when Achish, a Philistine prince, told David he expected David and his men to fight alongside them against Israel, David agreed (28:1-2). So here he was willing to fight against his own people. And when the Philistine commanders decided it wasn’t a good idea allowing David to fight with them against Israel, David’s reaction to Achish was, “Why can’t I go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” (29:1-10).

So why on earth would the Israelites even consider David as their king? Not only was he a traitor willing to fight against them, he was also splitting the nation. Many fighting men were already defecting from Saul to David, but not all (1 Chronicles 12:8, 16, 19). Emotions were running high, but in among the thousands “racing to help David” (12:22) there were some cool heads, the 200 chiefs of Issachar who were known and respected for their ability to discern the right course of action to take. Their princes had previously thrown their support behind Deborah, a female leader of all people (Judges 5:15), and been proved right in that choice too.  

So in the princes and chiefs of Issachar God had provided Israel with an Intelligence Unit, that could discern “what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). They could read the signs, just like donkeys that have also been equipped by God with intelligence to pause and see the best course of action to take. So, “Has God gifted some Issachars today” too?….(next blog)

Jacob predicted that his son Issachar would “bend his shoulder to the burden,” Genesis 49:15. And the picture he had in mind – as to what he meant by that – was a donkey. 

If there was a job to be done, Issachar’s descendants would “bend their shoulders” and get to work, like a donkey leaning forward with head down when pulling or carrying a heavy load. Is that what Jacob saw in Issachar’s personality, a donkey-like stoicism that accepts what needs to be done, and without fanfare or complaint gets on with the job in hand? 

Would that also explain why Issachar’s descendants were allotted the agricultural heartland and the most fertile land in Canaan? In Joshua 19:18 “their territory included Jezreel,” which today is still a highly productive fertile region. So the tribe of Issachar would become tough, hard working, skilled farm managers. 

Their toughness would prove useful too, when Deborah, the prophetess leading Israel in Judges 4:4, was given the go ahead by God – after 20 years of the Israelites being cruelly oppressed by Sisera and his 900 iron chariots (2-3) – to smash the lot of them, led in the attack by Barak (6). Judges 5:15 then says: “The princes of Issachar were with Deborah; yes, Issachar was with Barak,” and what a victory it was because not one of Sisera’s army, including Sisera himself, survived (4:14-24). 

And according to 1 Chronicles 7:1-5, “all the clans of Issachar” were able to muster up “87,000 fighting men,” far outweighing the second best army from Benjamin totalling 59,434 (6-10). The men of Issachar were donkeys to the core – hardy, fearless, and ready for a fight if needed – another burden they willingly “bent their shoulders” to. 

Which they willingly did in support of the future king David, along with “the rest of the Israelites who were also of one mind to make David king,” 1 Chronicles 12:23-38. But the men of Issachar were different to all the rest, because it was said of them in verse 32, that “they understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” What did that mean, and why is it mentioned that “200 of their chiefs” turned up too, which is not said of any of the other tribes either? 

But was this foreseen by Jacob too, when comparing Issachar to a donkey, that God would gift Issachar with the donkey’s skill at “Reading the signs” as well?….(next blog) 

In Jacob’s rather surprising prediction for his ninth son and fifth son by his first wife Leah, Issachar is compared to “a rawboned donkey,” Genesis 49:14. “Rawboned” in Hebrew is describing bone structure, or skeletal strength. And a donkey has just that: it’s a sturdy animal that can carry a heavy load, pictured by it “lying down between two saddlebags” (14), still seen today in tiny donkeys carrying massive “saddlebags” with all sorts of items, and at the same time even carrying an adult rider too. 

But a well fed, well cared for donkey that “sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land” (15), happily “bends his shoulder to the burden and submits to a life of unpaid service and toil.” Which donkeys do. They plug away stoically without complaint – even when in pain – and what is often taken as stubbornness when it refuses to move, is its uncanny ability to sense something is not quite right. So donkeys are not stupid; they are cautious, highly intelligent and can problem solve on the scale of a dolphin, and they have great memories for faces and places. They are loyal, playful and affectionate – and fearless too when guarding against predators. 

Donkeys in the time of Jacob were also a sign of wealth (Genesis 24:35) – and the choice of transport for kings and their families (Judges 5:10, 10:4, 12:14, 2 Samuel 16:2). Solomon rode a donkey on the day of his coronation (1 Kings 1:38-39), and ancient Egyptians buried donkeys among their kings. When Jacob talks of his son Issachar being a donkey, then, it’s a tribute to donkeys, and to his son. 

But how did this prophecy play out in real life, and did Issachar’s descendants offer any clues as to what the prophecy meant too? 

Fast forward to the book of Joshua when the tribe of Issachar is allotted its portion of land in Canaan (Joshua 19:17-23). Small though its portion was, It included the fertile eastern end of the Valley of Jezreel (18), which was and still is the richest farming region in Israel, so it’s not surprising that Jacob predicted that Issachar would “see how good is his resting place and how pleasant is the land” in Genesis 49:15. The land also lay between two mountains, Mount Tabor to the north and Mount Gilboa to the south, just like a donkey “lying down between two saddlebags” (14). But the parallels between donkeys and the future of Issachar don’t stop there: to “Issachar: donkey to the core”….(next blog)

Jesus lived as a child and much of his adult life in a land described by Isaiah as “gloom,” “distress.” “walking in darkness,” and “living in the land of the shadow of death,” Isaiah 9:1-2. And it was into such a world that Jesus came “to fulfill that same prophecy in Isaiah,” by being the “great light” that Isaiah had also predicted (2), that Matthew then confirmed as being Jesus, quoting Isaiah’s prophecy, in Matthew 4:16.

So Jesus came as a light into his world of darkness. But a light to reveal what, exactly?

Jesus answered that in John 17:4 when he said to his Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do,” that “work” being verse 6, “I have revealed you (Father) to those you gave me out of the world,” and in verse 26, “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known.” 

It was Jesus’ great wish and desire to make his Father real to people, which he was fully able to do because he’d “seen and heard” the Father personally (John 3:32). So he could say to his disciples in John 8:38, “I’m telling you what I saw when I was with my Father,” and in John 15:15, “everything I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

But why was it so important to Jesus to make his Father known? Because it tied in with Isaiah’s prophecy about the world being so dark, and Jesus knowing why it was so dark too. It was dark because, as he explained in  John 8:42, instead of “God being people’s Father” there was another “father” at work in people’s lives, “the devil,” verse 44, and people “wanting to carry out that father’s desire,” not God the Father’s. 

So it was Jesus’ job as the light of the world to illuminate the contrast between the two fathers. And it boiled down quite simply to the devil being a murderer and a liar (44), whose sole objective from the beginning has been to kill us off by getting us to ignore and disobey God – the fruits of which have never changed either, just endless unsolvable problems and humans divided. But, verse 47, “He who belongs to God hears what God says.” And Jesus shed a light on that too, by hearing what God said in his own life (John 5:19-20, 30, 6:38, 14:10).

So Jesus came to shed a light on two fathers, and his job ever since, Acts 26:18, has been “turning people from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” – from the devil “father” to God the Father. On, then, to “Issachar: a tribute to donkeys’….(next blog)

How on earth would the Jews believe Jesus was the Messiah coming out of some backwater nowhere like Nazareth? If he’d come from a Jewish stronghold like Jerusalem, yes, but not from that northern region known as “Galilee of the Gentiles.”  

But Matthew had an ace up his sleeve, a prophecy from Isaiah that pinpointed exactly where the Messiah would come from. It would be in that very area, “Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan“ Isaiah 9:1, in “the land of Zebulun and Naphtali” on the west side of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan river.

And it was here that Isaiah had predicted years of darkness, firstly due to the evil of all its kings, then invasion by the mighty Assyrians that left the area desolate and populated mostly by pagan Gentiles in the years following. But Isaiah had also predicted that God would “honour” the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, Isaiah 9:1, and those “walking in darkness would see a great light,” and in “the land of darkness a light would dawn” (2) – that Matthew then quoted word for word in Matthew 4:15-16 as proof that Jesus really was the Messiah.

So this backwoods area of Zebulun and Naphtali in the province of Galilee, with its mix of Jews and Gentiles, was the home ground for Jesus’ childhood and most of his ministry. It was here that he turned water into wine, fed thousands from just a few loaves and fish on two separate occasions (Mark 6 and 8), healed hundreds who came to him including the demon possessed (Luke 4:40-41), raised a young girl from the dead, calmed a raging sea, and “news spread about him through the whole countryside” (Luke 4:14).

There was no ignoring the dawning of a great light, but what a shock when Jesus stood up in the synagogue of his hometown of Nazareth in Luke 4:16-21, where he not only quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 as being fulfilled as he spoke, but also in the lifetime of Elijah and Elisha that God had sent them to feed and heal two Gentiles, but no Israelites (Luke 4:25-27). The intent was clear, that Jesus had been sent as a light to the Gentiles in this land of darkness too – exactly as Simeon had recognized in Jesus when he saw him, describing him as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to your people Israel,” Luke 2:32. 

And all this tucked away in the story of Jacob’s son Zebulun, that Jesus would become a light to Jew and Gentile alike. But does that include him being a light to those “Living in a dark world” today?….(next blog)