gave him that as the portion of his tribe. Issachar found his delight in local environment and living in tents. So, in a summary of the two, we see that Zebulun was a tribe that loved to follow the sea, but Issachar was a tribe that loved agriculture and each followed their own pursuit with equal success. This gives us a bit of an in sight into the manner in which God handled the placement of these peo ples. We must keep fixed in our thinking the fact that Issachar was a rugged individual who did a day of hard labor, and his men followed him in this way of life. In the Book of Numbers, chap ter 26, we see that in the numbering of those among the tribes who were people ready to go forth to war, that only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, of the 12 tribes, were numerically stronger than Issachar — and in the days of the kings of Israel, the tribe of Issachar had become stronger still. Read Numbers 26:25 and in I Chroni cles 7:5 we find “And their brethren among all the families of Issachar were valiant men of might, reckoned in all by their genealogies fourscore and seven thousand” — (87,000 men). And so this wonderful stone, the topaz, stands representative of Issachar,' and in a greater sense it speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ who labored for you and me. Christ had wrought perfectly all that the Father had sent Him to do — thus the joy of the Lord is upon us. * * * "God is far more concerned with what we are than with what we do/’
Issachar (continued) other son! It was because of this bar gaining over the mandrakes that Leah named the child Issachar — “to hire for reward” — while Rachel remained without children for another two years. Now we come again to the passage of Genesis 49:14, 15 where Jacob is bestowing his patriarchial blessing up on his sons and what do we read here? “Issachar is a strong ass crouching down between two burdens.” Dr. Mason tells us that this blessing has ofttimes been misinterpreted, because the ass is so often considered to be a silly animal, which is absolutely not true. There are 143 references in the Bible to the ass, but not one of them would justify this characteristic of be ing silly, as a fair judgment—many would prove to the contrary. In the judgment of Isaiah the ass would certainly be wiser than Israel for he said in chapter 1, verse 3, “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel does not even know, my people do not even consid er.” Now “crouching down between two burdens” has been suggested by some as meaning between indolence and stubbornness, but this is far from the truth. Dr. Henry gave the opinion that if we would compare Scripture with Scripture, as we are exhorted to do, we would discover that the his tory of this tribe under Issachar was just the reverse in the matter of in dolence — they were ready to work. Dr. Pink said of the expression “crouching between two burdens,” that “These words have been translated in many ways: as between the cattle pen, or beneath the two hearthstones, or lying down between the foal or within their own boundaries.” If we look at the two names of Issa char and Zebulun, as did Moses, it might be seen how God distributes men according to their abilities and qualifications. A love for travel domi nated both Zebulun and his tribe and so God settled him geographically along the Palestinian coastline and
— — — A ttentimi ------------------------ SAN BERNARDINO RIVERSIDE "The Bihle Institute Hour” is now on thè air daily 9 A.M.— KCKC— 1350 on thè diai (Also Sun.. 7:30 A . M K A F Y , 550 on thè diai)
12
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker