Genesis 49:24

The mighty God of Jacob.

Prom thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel

Three names:

These three names which we find here are striking and beautiful in themselves; in their juxtaposition; in their use on Jacob’s lips. Look at them as they stand.

I. THE MIGHTY GOD OF JACOB. The meaning of such a name is clear enough. It is He who has shown Himself mighty and mine by His deeds for me all through my life. The very vital centre of a man’s religion is his conviction that God is his. The dying patriarch left to his descendants the legacy of this great Name.

II. THE SHEPHERD. That name sums up the lessons that Jacob had learned from the work of himself and of his sons. His own sleepless vigilance and patient endurance were but shadows of the loving care, the watchful protection, the strong defence, which “the God who has been my Shepherd all my life long” had extended to him and his.

III. THE STONE OF ISRAEL. Here, again, we have a name that after-ages have caught up and cherished, used for the first time. The Stone of Israel means much the same thing as the Rock. The general idea of this symbol is firmness, solidity. God is a Rock--

1. for a foundation;

2. for a fortress;

3. for shade and refreshment.

None that ever built on that Rock have been confounded. We clasp hands with all that have gone before us. At one end of the long chain this dim figure of the dying Jacob stretches out his withered hands to God, the Stone of Israel; at the other end we lift up ours to Jesus and cry--

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.”

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)