And concerning Asher he said: "May Asher be the most blessed of sons; may he be the most favored among his brothers and dip his foot in oil. Sermons
I. NUMERICAL INCREASE. By a natural law of God's providence, rapid increase of the people is a fruit of material prosperity. When scarcity of food is a permanent condition, infanticide prevails, or children perish for lack of nutritious food. This increase of children was, in former times, a distinct token of God's favor, and a frequent subject of promise. As the numbers of Israel increased, so would their strength to resist aggression. It was when Israel's numbers were diminished by intestine wars, that the Eastern potentates gained decisive triumphs. Occupying, as Asher did, the extreme north-west of Canaan, numerical increase was a source of defensive strength. To the Christian parent - to the Church, children are a blessing. "Happy they who have their quiver full" of these Divine arrows. II. THERE IS SET FORTH SOCIAL REPUTATION AND GOOD WILL. "Let him be acceptable to his brethren." So long as the tribal relationship was maintained in strength, there was a constant danger of mutual jealousies and animosities. Occasionally this evil passion took fire and broke into open flame. From tribal suspicion and dislike Asher would be free. It is an honor and a joy to live in the esteem and good will of brethren. The outward reach of influence is enlarged. Life is felt to have nobler interests. The better part of human nature finds development. III. THERE IS FORESHADOWED AGRICULTURAL PROSPERITY. Upon the northern hills of Palestine the olive tree flourishes, and authorities affirm that no agricultural produce is so abundant and so remunerative as that of the olive. It is hardy, will flourish in rocky soil, and attains venerable age. Its fruit is valuable, is utilized for domestic purposes, and has always been a staple commodity of commerce. So prolific were the olives of Asher to become, that the people should have, not only the head, but the feet also, in the abundant oil; or the language may be designed as a bold figure, to indicate that so full should be the oil-vats at the base of every olive-clothed hill, that the very land should seem to be foot-deep in golden oil. IV. THERE IS PREDICTED IMPREGNABLE DEFENSE. The poetical imagery here may be better translated, "Thy bars shall be iron and brass." It may be that these metals were found in veins among the hills, or rather iron and copper, it may that the gates of their cities were, in some cases, fashioned with these metals. Doors and gates of iron are still to be seen in the district of Bashan. But it is better to treat the language as elegant imagery, to indicate the matchless strength of Asher's fortresses. Over all her internal wealth there shall be a sure defense. The Chaldee paraphase reads, "Thou shalt be strong and bright, like iron and brass." V. THERE IS PLEDGED INTERNAL STRENGTH PROPORTIONED TO NEED. "As thy days, thy strength." A precious promise this of universal application. Our days are under Divine inspection; our circumstances are under Divine control. It is better for the man every way that his strength should be increased than that the trial should be abated. The outcome is that the man emerges stronger, nobler, more highly developed. The supply is always adjusted to the particular need. God is the model of frugal economy. In his administration there is no waste. But there would be waste if the supply of strength daily given were in excess of the requirement. This would be a blot upon his wisdom. What should we say of the water company that sent daily into our houses ten times the quantity of water that is required? Or, what advantage would it be to us if the supply of light from the sun daily were a hundredfold in excess of this world's need? Our God is perfect wisdom, as well as infinite love. Strength shall be supplied, not in superabundant waste, but in exact proportion to our need. "As our days, our strength." The infant would be crushed with the strength of the full-grown man. - D.
Let Asher be blessed. "Asher" signifies "happiness," or "prosperity," and was given by Leah to the son of her handmaid Zilpah, in token of the joy which this new gift of God had brought to her wounded heart (Genesis 30:13). In this blessing of Moses there is manifestly a play upon the name thus given. It is treated as a good and true omen concerning Asher's temporal lot. The next line, "Let him dip his feet in oil," is a prediction of the exceeding richness and fertility of Asher's territory in the promised land. Jacob had already foretold the same thing in his dying prophecy (Genesis 49:20). Fatness is to an Oriental the quality which chiefly recommends any viand. Olive oil, "butter of kine," and the animal fat which is lodged in the curiously overgrown tail of a Syrian sheep, are to this day the peculiar dainties of Eastern cookery, and all of these were produced in abundance on the land which fell by lot to this favoured tribe (Deuteronomy 8:7-9). The figure by which Asher is here said to "dip his foot in oil" is a familiar Eastern idiom to describe the overflowing abundance of all these natural productions of the soil. Job uses it in precisely the same way (Job 29:6). The fourth line of the blessing is certainly meant to be parallel with the third line in its reference to some natural feature of the territory reserved for Asher in Canaan; but the exact force of the reference is still a matter of dispute amongst the learned. Some would read the line as it stands in the margin: "Under thy shoes shall be iron and brass (i.e. copper)"; and this would be a perfectly the description of the mineral wealth of a part of the mountain range which Asher ought to have occupied, but which he abandoned to the Zidonians, who very diligently dug out the metals above named from their subterranean veins. Moses had noted this feature of the soil of Canaan (Deuteronomy 8:9). But in all likelihood the notion of "shoes" is quite foreign to the true interpretation of this part of the blessing; and the Hebrew word which suggested it alike to the Septuagint and English translators should properly be rendered "thy bars," or, "thy bolts." Here, again, we find a very graphic poetical description of Asher's lot in the promised land. His boundary is traced on its landward side by strongly-marked mountain ridges; and on the west these barriers run out into the sea in successive capes, that resemble the traverses of some titanic fortification, and which are as rugged and ironbound in aspect as the inland region which they protect is smiling and soft. If this allusion be recognised in Moses' blessing, the intention will plainly be to suggest the security of Asher in the portion which God was about to bestow upon him. There he should be fenced in, as it were, by bolts of iron and bars of brass, which no envious foe should be able to break through with hostile or thievish intent. This interpretation of the fourth line in the blessing would almost lead us to prefer the following amongst the many renderings that have been given of the fifth line: "According to thy life shall be thy rest"; that is, Asher's repose from warlike labours and alarms should continue as long as his tribal existence. But the associations which long attached to the rendering as given in the English Bible will probably make most readers reluctant to give up the thought which many a sermon and hymn will have endeared and familiarised: "As thy days shall be thy strength" — that is, the strength of him whom God favours shall always be in proportion to his need (1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 12:9). One could wish that the actual history of Asher furnished a happy comment upon, and illustration of, his blessing as thus interpreted; but in truth the comparison of prophetic poetry and prosaic fact in this particular instance is full of suggestive disappointment. Asher did dwell securely for a certain period within his mountain barriers, and his sons seem to have enjoyed a long season of material prosperity; but this was not through their trust in Divine protection, but through their own subtle worldly policy, which involved, alas, the faithless surrender of their highest duty to God. The men of Asher deemed it too hard a task to drive out the Phoenicians and Canaanites whom they found in possession of the strong cities and fat valleys of their portion. God would indeed have helped them utterly to exterminate their heathen rivals; but they preferred to make a cowardly truce and compromise, by virtue of which they dwelt peaceably "among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land" (Judges 1:31, 32). Nor did Asher from that time forward ever redeem the shame of his dishonourable compact with foes whom he ought to have destroyed. The very name of the tribe almost vanishes from the page of Hebrew history, and it had better have been absent altogether than conspicuous as it is in the bitterly scornful allusion of Deborah (Judges 5:17, 18). Yet the name of Asher is not, like that of Dan, blotted with hopeless ignominy from the list of God's redeemed. A woman of this tribe, Anna, the centenarian prophetess of Jerusalem, was among the first to hail the infant Saviour, and to give thanks for His salvation unto the Lord (Luke 2:36-38). Though the majority of the tribe perished through worldly conformity and ease-loving apostasy from the covenant of God, yet the blessing of Moses upon Asher was not wholly forfeited nor unfulfilled. Let the lesson of this story be for our instruction in the dangers of temporal prosperity, even for the Lord's elect, and no less in the meaning of those reverses of earthly fortune by which the backslidings of the chosen people are continually chastised. When Asher forgets the covenant of his Redeemer, "the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send among his fat ones leanness, and under his glory He will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire"; but even in those experiences of well-deserved, correction and adversity, the soul that God has favoured and pronounced "blessed" shall not be abandoned to utter ruin. As his days, so his strength shall be (Isaiah 10:16-21).(T. G. Rooke, B. A.) People Asher, Benjamin, Dan, Gad, Israelites, Issachar, Jacob, Joseph, Levi, Manasseh, Moses, Naphtali, Reuben, Seir, ZebulunPlaces Bashan, Massah, Meribah, Moab, Mount Paran, Seir, SinaiTopics Acceptable, Accepted, Asher, Bathe, Blessed, Blessing, Brethren, Brothers, Dip, Dipping, Favored, Favorite, Favoured, Foot, Oil, Pleasing, Sons, WetOutline 1. The majesty of God6. The blessings of the twelve tribes 26. The excellence of Israel Dictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 33:24Library Israel the Beloved'The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between His shoulders.'--DEUT. xxxiii. 12. Benjamin was his father's favourite child, and the imagery of this promise is throughout drawn from the relations between such a child and its father. So far as the future history of the tribes is shadowed in these 'blessings' of this great ode, the reference of the text may be to the tribe of Benjamin, as specially distinguished by Saul … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Shod for the Road God and his Saints Shoes of Iron, and Strength Sufficient: a New Year's Promise "As Thy Days, So Shall Thy Strength Be" 2D Day. Needful Grace. Covenanting Predicted in Prophecy. Within what Tribe the Lake of Gennesaret Was. 1872 the Need of a Home Further West --Burning of the Marchmont Home --Home Restored by Canadian Gifts --Miss Macpherson and Miss Reavell Arrive in Canada Second Part With Israel's God who Can Compare? On Deut. xxxiii. Ii The Best Things Work for Good to the Godly Subterraneous Places. Mines. Caves. Wesley's Hymns Reconsidered The Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood An Exposition on the First Ten Chapters of Genesis, and Part of the Eleventh Manner of Covenanting. Jesus Works his First Miracle at Cana in Galilee. Adam's Sin Mount Zion. Notes on the Third Century Fourth Sunday after Epiphany Links Deuteronomy 33:24 NIVDeuteronomy 33:24 NLT Deuteronomy 33:24 ESV Deuteronomy 33:24 NASB Deuteronomy 33:24 KJV Deuteronomy 33:24 Bible Apps Deuteronomy 33:24 Parallel Deuteronomy 33:24 Biblia Paralela Deuteronomy 33:24 Chinese Bible Deuteronomy 33:24 French Bible Deuteronomy 33:24 German Bible Deuteronomy 33:24 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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