Benjamin || Jacob’s Family Tree || Week 8 (FINALE)

Welcome back to the finale of the series we’ve been calling “Jacob’s Family Tree.” In this series, we’ve taken a deeper dive into Jacob’s blessings to each of his children. This week, we are talking about the last child, Benjamin. I know you’ve repeatedly heard me say this throughout this series, but I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I appreciate those who have stuck with me throughout this series and my 3-month absence at the beginning of 2021. I love you all! Enough sappiness, though. Let’s check out the blessing given to Benjamin found in Genesis 49:27:

27 “Benjamin is like a hungry wolf. In the morning he eats what he has caught. In the evening he divides what he has taken.

The younger sibling is usually, the feistier one, but even this seems cryptic. Let’s check out what this means.

Benjamin’s Fighting Crew

The warlike nature of the small tribe of Benjamin became well known, as shown in the vigorous defense of their wickedness in Gibeah. (Go check out Judges 19 and 20 for this story.) It’s also shown in their archers and slingers in these passages:

Judges 20:16

Seven hundred of these trained soldiers were left-handed. Each of these left-handed soldiers could sling a stone at a hair and not miss!

1 Chronicles 8:40

Ulam’s sons were mighty warriors would could use a bow and arrow well. They had many sons and grandsons. There were 150 of them in all. All these men were Benjamin’s descendants.

1 Chronicles 12:22

Every day more men joined David. So his army became large. It was like the army of God.

2 Chronicles 14:8

Asa had an army of 300,000 men from the people of Judah. And he had 280,000 men from the people of Benjamin. The men from Judah carried large shields and spears. The men from Benjamin carried small shields and bows and arrows. All these men were brave fighting men.

2 Chronicles 17:17

These were the commanders from the families of Benjamin: Eliada had 200,000 soldiers who used bows and shields. Eliada was a brave soldier.

Such high praise from the army came from Benjamin’s tribe. One of my favorite descriptors from these five verses is the verse from Judges: “…specially chosen men were left-handed….” They looked down on left-handed people during these times because they believed they had an evil spirit within them. This usually stems from God having the righteous RIGHT hand. 700 of these people were SPECIFICALLY chosen. Meaning that God intentionally went to this group of people and went: “You’ll do.” They were terrific at what they did, but they were more than likely looked over because of their left-handedness. God chose these people to be the fighters of their tribe at that time.

Better Call More Than One Saul

Ironically (to me at least) is that both Sauls in the Bible were from the tribe of Benjamin. The first king of Israel, as found in 1 Samuel 9:1-2:

1 Kish son of Abiel was from the tribe of Benjamin. He was an important man. (Abiel was the son of Zeror. And Zeror was the son of Becorath. He was the son of Aphiah of Benjamin.)

2 Kish had a son named Saul. Saul was a fine young man. There was no Israelite better than he. Saul stood a head taller than any other man in Israel.

The apostle Paul, as found in Philippians 3:5:

5 I was circumcised eight days after my birth. I am from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew, and my parents were Hebrews. The law of Moses was very important to me. That is why I became a Pharisee. 

I love this little fact. Just me? Okay…

Summary and Preview

Today we learned that Benjamin’s tribe was full of mighty warriors, army men, defensemen, and all-around fighters. We also learned that a couple of crucial Sauls came from this tribe.

Thank you for indulging me through this Bible Study! I’ve mentioned that God nudged me to explore these blessings more, and I found it extremely helpful. I hope you did as well. You may be asking now, though: “What’s next?”

I will throw in a one-off blog next week, but the next week is when our brand-new series starts. I want to take a similar concept that I ran within this series and dive into the Beatitudes. That one will likely be the more motivational message series and will be more familiar to my writing niche. Until then, though, stay blessed!