Motivation For Men – Keeping It PureSample

“Loss of Leadership”

If you had 12 sons, what would be your hope and dream for your first-born son? Wouldn't you want him to be a leader and example for the others? Wouldn't you want him to be giving you reasons to be proud of him?

How would you feel, then, if that oldest son not only broke your heart, but betrayed you in the process?

Genesis 49 is kind of a "reading of the will" in a spiritual sense, in that Jacob is describing the spiritual inheritance of each of his sons and, by extension, that of each of the 12 tribes of Israel. By all rights, Reuben as the first-born and the tribe of his descendants should have been preeminent in dignity and power, but Reuben's legacy was ruined by the fact that he defiled his father's couch.

Jacob is referring to an event mentioned in Genesis 35, in which Reuben had sex with Bilhah, his aunt Rachel's servant and, more importantly in this context, Jacob's concubine (a slave wife, so to speak). However we might personally view the patriarchal customs of concubinage or polygamy, by the standards of Jacob's day and time, Bilhah belonged to Jacob sexually, making Reuben's sexual encounter with her adulterous and immoral.

Reuben ruined his spiritual legacy and reputation by being "uncontrolled as water", in that he failed to resist sexual temptation and betrayed his father in the process.

What do you want your spiritual legacy to be?