33:23
Naphtali’s blessing is a little longer, and makes a little more sense. He is abounding with favour from the Lord, and so is full of blessing. This is what we are to be like.
33:24,25
Asher gets a couple of verses. The mention of “let him dip his foot in oil” means let him be wealthy. Olive oil was a symbol of wealth. So the blessing is for him to be wealthy and strong.
33:26-29
The chapter finishes with a general blessing for Israel. It starts with Moses extolling the virtues of God. The greatness of God is the foundation for any good things that we might have. Jeshurun means Israel, and Israel is urged to remember who the Lord is, something they manifestly failed to do. He was their dwelling place, He was the One who provided safety and defeated their enemies. So it is for us. We must never forget this, and Israel’s repeated forgetting of this was the root cause of their downfall.
If only Israel had stuck with the Lord their future would have been so different. Instead we will see repeated failure after failure, defeat after defeat. These are interspersed with periods when they turned to God, or had a good leader, and then they saw the benefits of God, but these periods never lasted long.
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