Deuteronomy 33:29 –
How blessed you are, O Israel! Who else is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your protecting shield and your triumphant sword! Your enemies will cringe before you, and you will stomp on their backs!
This is Moses’ final blessing on Israel before they cross into the Promised Land and he dies. The first thing I got reading the chapters is how many of the tribes of Israel I did not know. He blesses each of them and as I was reading I realized how many I did not know, which got me thinking how many of the 12 disciples I knew. Is this important to know all 12 by name? I don’t believe so, but it’s something that I would like to be able to rattle off my head.
As listed in the blessing; Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Joseph, Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Dan, Naphtali, and Asher. Interestingly, Moses left off the tribe of Simeon! Was this because they are cursed from Genesis 49:7? The other thing I noticed in researching this is the tribe of Joseph was combined into two tribes; Manasseh and Ephraim. So I ran down this rabbit trail trying to figure out the tribes and missed the whole point of my initial thought!
It is verses like this that are the basis for the Israelites rejecting Jesus as the Messiah. They are expecting a mighty warrior to crush the Roman’s occupying their lands and restore their lands by force. All throughout the Old Testament we see references to Israel’s opponents being destroyed, hence why the image of the Messiah would be mighty. They did not expect Jesus and His message as that of the Messiah.
Their expectations were different than what actually transpired. How many times has this happened to us? We expect one thing and get another! As children this happens often as we grow up and can be illustrated by birthdays and Christmas. How many times did we wake expecting one thing and ended up getting another? I know this happened a few times, one when I was real young and wanted a Spiderman costume. This was before the time when you could buy them so it was not easy and did not transpire. Also there was no way my mother could have met my expectations anyway because I wanted it to work!! The point in this is when God says one thing don’t interpret it the way you wish, be open to His definition and not yours.