“Let Reuben live, and not die, but let his men be few” Deuteronomy 33:6.

After the opening of the blessing  in verses 2-5 which focused purely on God’s glory as it was manifested at Sinai, Moses now turns his attention to the blessing of each of the tribes.

The order is somewhat different from Jacob’s blessing in Genesis 49 in that although he starts with some of the tribes named after the sons of Leah, Moses then divides the tribes of Benjamin and Joseph, the sons of Rachel, before he returns to the final two.  He then finishes with the tribe’s named after the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah the respective handmaidens of Rachel and Leah as opposed to how Jacob finishes with the tribes of Joseph and Benjamin descended from the sons of Rachel.

The other notable exception here is that the tribe of Simeon is not mentioned.  This would be in accordance with Genesis 49:7 and the fact that it seems to have become part of, or a part within, the tribe of Judah, certainly where territory was concerned as Joshua 19:1-9 shows their territory was within Judah’s territory.

Reuben is the first tribe to be blessed (v6) and the blessing is comparatively short compared to the blessing of the others tribes.  The blessing takes the form of a request to the Lord for the survival of the tribe, yet, at the same time, a request that the tribe would not increase greatly in size.  The background and reason for this is found in Jacob’s words in Genesis 49:4 which indicates the sexual sin of Reuben, in Genesis 35:22, when he slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah.  The seriousness of this sin is indicated with its prohibition in the Law (Deuteronomy 22:30, although this is a man committing the act with his mother) and by the threat of the curse in Deuteronomy 27:20.  What we do know is that the tribe of Reuben was numerous at the time of the first census in Numbers 1 numbering 46500 but by the time of the second census in Numbers 26 they had declined to 43750 a loss of 2770.  The tribe continued to have trouble with decreasing numbers and later in Israel’s history, when the nation was disobedient and came under the covenant curses, the tribe of Reuben suffered from Ammonite aggression against Israel (see 2 Kings 10:33).  Hence the nature of Moses’ prayer for them.

So, what can we learn from Moses’ blessing of the tribe of Reuben?  Many Churches in this day and age are facing decline.  Although it is not always the case, it seems foolhardy to me for Churches not to examine the past and to see if there is any sense of unfaithfulness and sin in the closet which has led to a withdrawal of God’s blessing.  After all, a sin that is recognized is a sin that can be repented of!