491 And Jacob called his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, and I will tell you what will befall you at the end of days. 2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob, And listen to Israel your father. 3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, My might, and the firstfruits of my vigour: Excellency of dignity, and excellency of strength. 4 Impetuous as the waters, thou shalt have no pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father's couch: Then defiledst thou [it]: he went up to my bed.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren: Instruments of violence their swords. 6 My soul, come not into their council; Mine honour, be not united with their assembly; For in their anger they slew men, And in their wantonness houghed oxen. 7 Cursed be their anger, for it [was] violent; And their rage, for it [was] cruel! I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah—[as to] thee, thy brethren will praise thee; Thy hand will be upon the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's children will bow down to thee. 9 Judah is a young lion; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stoopeth, he layeth himself down as a lion, And as a lioness: who will rouse him up? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, Nor the lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh come, And to him will be the obedience of peoples. 11 He bindeth his foal to the vine, And his ass's colt to the choice vine; He washeth his dress in wine, And his garment in the blood of grapes. 12 The eyes are red with wine, And the teeth [are] white with milk.
13 Zebulun will dwell at the shore of the seas; Yea, he will be at the shore of the ships, And his side [toucheth] upon Sidon. 14 Issachar is a bony ass, Crouching down between two hurdles. 15 And he saw the rest that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And was a tributary servant. 16 Dan will judge his people, As another of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan will be a serpent on the way, A horned snake on the path, Which biteth the horse's heels, So that the rider falleth backwards. 18 I wait for thy salvation, O Jehovah. 19 Gad—troops will rush upon him; But he will rush upon the heel. 20 Out of Asher, his bread shall be fat, And he will give royal dainties. 21 Naphtali is a hind let loose; He giveth goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough; A fruitful bough by a well; [His] branches shoot over the wall. 23 The archers have provoked him, And shot at, and hated him; 24 But his bow abideth firm, And the arms of his hands are supple By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel: 25 From the God of thy father, and he will help thee; And from the Almighty, and he will bless thee—With blessings of heaven from above, With blessings of the deep that lieth under, With blessings of the breast and of the womb. 26 The blessings of thy father surpass the blessings of my ancestors, Unto the bounds of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. 27 Benjamin—[as] a wolf will he tear to pieces; In the morning he will devour the prey, And in the evening he will divide the booty.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them; and he blessed them: every one according to his blessing he blessed them. 29 And he charged them, and said to them, I am gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is opposite to Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite along with the field for a possession of a sepulchre. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32 The purchase of the field, and of the cave that is in it, was from the children of Heth. 33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered to his peoples.
501 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. And the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those who are embalmed. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. 4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favour in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 My father made me swear, saying, Behold, I die; in my grave which I have dug myself in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. And now, let me go up, I pray thee, that I may bury my father; and I will come again. 6 And Pharaoh said, Go up and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
7 And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the bondmen of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house; only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and the camp was very great. 10 And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan; and there they lamented with a great and very grievous lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father of seven days. 11 And the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing-floor of Atad, and they said, This is a grievous mourning of the Egyptians. Therefore the name of it was called Abel-Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. 12 And his sons did to him according as he had commanded them; 13 and his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah which Abraham had bought along with the field, for a possession of a sepulchre, of Ephron the Hittite, opposite to Mamre. 14 And, after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brethren, and all that had gone up with him to bury his father.
15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, If now Joseph should be hostile to us, and should indeed requite us all the evil that we did to him! 16 And they sent a messenger to Joseph, saying, Thy father commanded before he died, saying, 17 Thus shall ye speak to Joseph: Oh forgive, I pray thee, the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin! for they did evil to thee. And now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and said, Behold, we are thy bondmen. 19 And Joseph said to them, Fear not: am I then in the place of God? 20 Ye indeed meant evil against me: God meant it for good, in order that he might do as [it is] this day, to save a great people alive. 21 And now, fear not: I will maintain you and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spoke consolingly to them.
22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. 23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third [generation]; the sons also of Machir the son of Manasseh were born on Joseph's knees. 24 And Joseph said to his brethren, I die; and God will certainly visit you, and bring you up out of this land, into the land that he swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will certainly visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones hence. 26 And Joseph died, a hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him; and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
31 Another parable set he before them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens is like a grain of mustard [seed] which a man took and sowed in his field; 32 which is less indeed than all seeds, but when it is grown is greater than herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and roost in its branches.
33 He spoke another parable to them: The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it had been all leavened.
34 All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and without a parable he did not speak to them, 35 so that that should be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from [the] world's foundation.
36 Then, having dismissed the crowds, he went into the house; and his disciples came to him, saying, Expound to us the parable of the darnel of the field. 37 But he answering said, He that sows the good seed is the Son of man, 38 and the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, but the darnel are the sons of the evil [one]; 39 and the enemy who has sowed it is the devil; and the harvest is [the] completion of [the] age, and the harvestmen are angels. 40 As then the darnel is gathered and is burned in the fire, thus it shall be in the completion of the age. 41 The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all offences, and those that practise lawlessness; 42 and they shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that has ears, let him hear.
44 The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hid in the field, which a man having found has hid, and for the joy of it goes and sells all whatever he has, and buys that field.
45 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls; 46 and having found one pearl of great value, he went and sold all whatever he had and bought it.
47 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a seine which has been cast into the sea, and which has gathered together of every kind, 48 which, when it has been filled, having drawn up on the shore and sat down, they gathered the good into vessels and cast the worthless out. 49 Thus shall it be in the completion of the age: the angels shall go forth and sever the wicked from the midst of the just, 50 and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
51 Jesus says to them, Have ye understood all these things? They say to him, Yea, [Lord]. 52 And he said to them, For this reason every scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens is like a man [that is] a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.
53 And it came to pass when Jesus had finished these parables he withdrew thence. 54 And having come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, Whence has this [man] this wisdom and these works of power? 55 Is not this the son of the carpenter? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? 56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then has this [man] all these things? 57 And they were offended in him. And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honour, unless in his country and in his house. 58 And he did not there many works of power, because of their unbelief.
(Read Matthew 13:31-35)
The scope of the parable of the seed sown, is to show that the beginnings of the gospel would be small, but its latter end would greatly increase; in this way the work of grace in the heart, the kingdom of God within us, would be carried on. In the soul where grace truly is, it will grow really; though perhaps at first not to be discerned, it will at last come to great strength and usefulness. The preaching of the gospel works like leaven in the hearts of those who receive it. The leaven works certainly, so does the word, yet gradually. It works silently, and without being seen, Romans 6:13. From these parables we are taught to expect a gradual progress; therefore let us inquire, Are we growing in grace? and in holy principles and habits?
(Read Matthew 13:36-52)
Here are four parables. 1. That of the treasure hid in the field. Many slight the gospel, because they look only upon the surface of the field. But all who search the Scriptures, so as in them to find Christ and eternal life, John 5:39, will discover such treasure in this field as makes it unspeakably valuable; they make it their own upon any terms. Though nothing can be given as a price for this salvation, yet much must be given up for the sake of it. 2. All the children of men are busy; one would be rich, another would be honourable, another would be learned; but most are deceived, and take up with counterfeits for pearls. Jesus Christ is a Pearl of great price; in having him, we have enough to make us happy here and for ever. A man may buy gold too dear, but not this Pearl of great price. When the convinced sinner sees Christ as the gracious Saviour, all things else become worthless to his thoughts. 3. The world is a vast sea, and men, in their natural state, are like the fishes. Preaching the gospel is casting a net into this sea, to catch something out of it, for His glory who has the sovereignty of this sea. Hypocrites and true Christians shall be parted: miserable is the condition of those that shall then be cast away. 4. A skilful, faithful minister of the gospel, is a scribe, well versed in the things of the gospel, and able to teach them. Christ compares him to a good householder, who brings forth fruits of last year's growth and this year's gathering, abundance and variety, to entertain his friends. Old experiences and new observations, all have their use. Our place is at Christ's feet, and we must daily learn old lessons over again, and new ones also.
(Read Matthew 13:53-58)
Christ repeats his offer to those who have repulsed them. They upbraid him, Is not this the carpenter's son? Yes, it is true he was reputed to be so; and no disgrace to be the son of an honest tradesman; they should have respected him the more because he was one of themselves, but therefore they despised him. He did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Unbelief is the great hinderance to Christ's favours. Let us keep faithful to him as the Saviour who has made our peace with God.
