Bible Study With Jairus – Deuteronomy 33:23
The Story of Naphtali: Learning to Respond Redemptively in a Fallen World
Deuteronomy 33:
23 And of Naphtali he said,
“O Naphtali, sated with favor,
and full of the blessing of the Lord,
possess the lake and the south.”
Some of the twelve sons of Israel receive more attention than others. For example, preachers and teachers frequently mention Joseph and Judah, Rueben and Benjamin, and even lesser-known sons such as Dan. These sons receive attention because of the prophecies made about them by Jacob or Moses. But we rarely hear much about Naphtali, even though he is also a son of Jacob whose name will one day appear on one of the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem. Like the other sons of Israel, Naphtali went from being a sinner to being worthy of having his name written on one of the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem. So let’s learn a bit more about him. Naphtali deliberately chose to get rid of hatred, forgive others, and saturate himself with the favor and blessing of the Lord. When Moses blessed Naphtali in Deuteronomy 33:23, he said, “he shall take possession of the sea and the south” (BSB). This refers to an enlargement of his kingdom’s influence. “The sea” is often used to refer to the Gentiles, and “the south” usually refers to Jerusalem. (Naphtali’s land is in the north.) When Jacob blessed Naphtali in Genesis 49:21, he said that Naphtali was like “doe set free that bears beautiful fawns” (NIV). In other translations, it says, “He uses beautiful words” (NKJV). This beautiful imagery reminds us of someone who receives the joy of forgiveness and becomes a happy preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we dive into the story of Naphtali, we will see how he suffered from abandonment, how he watched others become dehumanized with hatred, how he chose to forgive and take a different path, and how he eventually became a person full of joy because of the salvation power of the Lord. The story of the transformation of the twelve tribes of Israel is still a work in progress, and their ultimate destiny will be fulfilled when they finally become pearly gates in the New Jerusalem. Similarly, the story of the tribe of Naphtali is not yet complete, but his territory will eventually expand to the sea and the south. He will bring the glad tidings to the Gentiles, leading to the salvation of the whole house of Israel.
Progressive Revelation and God Speaking in Stages
One of the great truths that Scripture teaches is that God reveals Himself progressively. He does not reveal everything at once, but unfolds His purposes over time.
At one point, God spoke through Jacob, a dying father blessing his sons in Genesis 49. Later, God spoke again through Moses, a covenant mediator standing at the edge of the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 33. These were not disconnected moments. Moses’ words were not a contradiction of Jacob’s prophecy. They were a continuation.
This reveals something profound. God’s redemptive story unfolds in stages, across generations, according to His eternal purposes.
Hebrews 1:1 reminds us that long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
God was not finished with the twelve tribes when Jacob spoke. He was not finished when Moses spoke. And as Paul explains in Romans chapters 9 through 11, God is still at work even when His people experience seasons of hardening, discipline, or divine restraint.
Jacob spoke as a father shaped by relationship and observation. Moses spoke as a prophet shaped by covenant and destiny. Together, their words form a single redemptive thread. The prophecies of Jacob toward his sons are seeds and based on his observations of the unique personality and character of each of his sons. Moses’ prophecies are his prophetic declaration of the future of the twelve tribes of Israel. Some of these may only be fulfilled at the end of the age. This teaches us that God does not discard previous revelation. He builds upon it.
The story of the twelve tribes is not static. It is transformative. It is still moving toward redemption.
Some may ask why the Old Testament matters when we live under the New Covenant. The answer is simple. Scripture is not divided in intention. It is one unified revelation inspired by the all-wise God. What was concealed in the Old Testament is revealed in the New, and what is revealed in the New was already present in seed form in the Old.
Dan and the Image of the Serpent
Jacob describes Dan with chilling imagery in Genesis 49:17. He calls him a serpent by the way, a viper by the path.
This is prophetic language. A serpent does not confront openly. It hides. It waits. It strikes from concealment. Venom is not loud. It is stored.
Scripture does not explicitly explain how Dan became this way. What follows is inference, not doctrine, but it is inference guided by the symbolic language Scripture itself employs.
Dan, just like his brother Naphtali, was born into a fractured household. His biological mother was Bilhah, a maid. His legal mother was Rachel. His identity was complex and likely contested. In a home marked by rivalry, favoritism, and emotional displacement, identity easily becomes a battlefield.
I can imagine words spoken carelessly. “You are not really Rachel’s.” “Your mother is a maid.” I can imagine affection shifting when Joseph was born—Rachel’s biological son, the beloved child of promise described in Genesis 37:3. I can imagine comparison slowly fermenting into resentment.
Hatred rarely arrives fully formed. It is nursed. It is fed by silence, neglect, and unresolved wounds.
The image of the serpent fits a heart that learned to survive by suspicion. A heart that chose to strike before being struck. A heart that internalized pain until it became poison.
To be honest, I have felt this myself. After being wounded deeply by a relative, I sensed bitterness creeping into my heart like a serpent. Quiet. Patient. Waiting. Wanting revenge. My own experience helps me understand Dan not as a villain, but as a warning.
Again, this is inference, but it is an inference consistent with biblical symbolism.
A Fallen Household and Divergent Responses
Jacob never intended to have four wives. His desire was to marry Rachel alone, as seen in Genesis 29. Yet deception, cultural practices, and human weakness led to a fragmented household. Scripture does not endorse this structure. It records it honestly.
This story teaches an important lesson. We live in a fallen world and fallen things happen, even when we never intended them to.
Neither Dan nor Naphtali would have wanted to be born in such situations, nor did their father imagine having children in such disordered circumstances.
In situations like this, it is important that we trust the Lord to make the best out of our mess. He has the power to make us into people with great impact according to his will if we yield our free will to him.
Back to our thought process.
From this disorder came rivalry, competition for affection, identity confusion, and moral failure.
Reuben’s sin with Bilhah in Genesis 35:22 reveals the moral disintegration that can occur when boundaries collapse. Scripture does not excuse his sin, but it does show us the environment in which it occurred.
Dan and Naphtali shared the same origin, the same mother, and the same broken system. Yet their responses diverged. They were both taken away from their mother Bilhah and raised by Rachel. Both of them may have experienced the shock of finding out they were not biological children of Rachel, but her maid. They likely watched as Joseph took their place as the most beloved. They all had to deal with the fact their older brother Reuben slept with their mother. What a sense of shame, negligence, and abandonment they must have felt when they found that out! According to Genesis 49:17, Dan became like a snake, full of hatred. Perhaps he was demonized with hatred. On the other hand, I imagine that Naphtali said to himself, “I am not going to be like Dan. I know that what happened is not fair. But I choose to be released from the bondage of hatred. I choose the freedom of forgiveness.”
Dan became associated with deception and idolatry, as seen in Genesis 49:17 and Judges 18. Naphtali, however, was described as a deer let loose (Genesis 49:21) and later as “abounding with favor” and “full of blessing” (Deuteronomy 33:23)
Same environment. Same pain. Different responses.
This teaches us a sobering truth. Circumstances may shape us, but they do not define us.
Naphtali was called “doe set free that bears beautiful fawns” (NIV). In other translations, it says, “He uses beautiful words” (NKJV). I was like Dan before I was saved. I felt the snake was biting my heart and released the venom through me to intend to hurt others who hurt me. I was full of hatred. After I was saved, I released my forgiveness toward this relative and received the joy of God’s salvation and forgiveness. I became full of peace, abounding with the favor of God, just like Naphtali was.
God uses a beautiful picture to describe those who receive the joy of salvation through God’s forgiveness of them and their forgiveness of others. He says they are like a deer who jumps for joy, surrounded by many fawns, giving forth the beautiful words of the gospel. There is no better way to describe the blessedness of forgiveness!
Pain as Refinement Through Joseph
Joseph’s life shows us that suffering can either harden the heart or purify it. Betrayed by his brothers, imprisoned unjustly, and forgotten by men, Joseph nevertheless chose forgiveness. In Genesis 50:20, he declared that what others meant for evil, God meant for good.
In the same way, we can be confident that through our pain, God is building something remarkable for His glory. The Bible shows us time and time again how God uses difficult things to bring out the best in us. I know it is easier said than done, but we can trust God to do the same for us.
Peter says we are refined like gold in the fire, burning at intense heat. But we aren’t consumed, we are refined.
Paul clearly says in Romans 5 that hard times produce endurance, a kind of faith that is long lasting and beyond this world.
We should learn to trust the Lord with our pain and difficulties, allowing him to use them to make us and mold us. He is the potter, and we are the clay.
In the lives of Dan and Naphtali, pain became a refining fire. But what emerged from that furnace depended on each man’s heart.
Naphtali chose freedom. Dan chose concealment.
In the same way, our response to our pain will determine the outcome. We can choose to respond like Naphtali, submitting our pain to the Lord and not choosing to conceal it or seek vengeance. Vengeance is of the Lord! Hallelujah.
God’s Ongoing Redemptive Work
Paul teaches in Romans 11 that Israel experienced a hardening—not because God failed, but because God was working. The story pauses, but it does not end. Discipline serves as a tool of restoration.
The Old Testament does not conclude without hope. It finds fulfillment in Christ. What was concealed is now revealed.
God is patient with people. He is patient with processes. He is patient with hearts still learning how to respond rightly.
As a matter of fact, God is still completing his work of uniting the Jews and the Church, building them together into the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is not yet present here on earth. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel are not yet written on the twelve pearly gates. Metaphorically speaking, the pearls are still being formed inside the oyster of suffering. The redemptive story of Naphtali is not complete; it is a work in progress.
Where is the tribe of Naphtali today? Based on the Biblical record, only two tribes survived when the Northern kingdom disappeared. Those tribes were Judah and Benjamin. Currently, the other ten tribes of Israel are spread out throughout the world, and some of them are in the land of Israel today. But God will eventually call them back and mark them as members of the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 7. Naphtali is among those who are marked, but Dan is not there. Dan was lost as a tribe, but his name eventually made it onto one of the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. Dan went through many trials and tribulations between Revelation 7 and Revelation 21.
We are in the end times, but we are not yet seeing the great disasters described in the end of Revelation 6 regarding the sixth seal. This passage says, “There was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place” (Revelation 6: 12-14).
In order to become a pearly gate in the New Jerusalem, Dan went through many trials. Naphtali was spared from these trials. This reveals a simple truth. We can either repent now, like Naphtali, or repent later after going through hell and back, like Dan. I choose to be like Naphtali: to forgive all those who hurt me. To let it go. To acknowledge that they meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Going through trials, pain, and refining fire is unavoidable in this life. But it is the way God chooses to refine us so we can eventually become pearls and precious stones in the New Jerusalem.
Naphtali and the Favor of God
Moses declares in Deuteronomy 33:23,
“O Naphtali, sated with favor,
and full of the blessing of the Lord,
possess the lake and the south.”
This blessing is striking not because it is loud or dramatic, but because it is quietly redemptive. Moses does not describe Naphtali as dominant, feared, or forceful. He describes him as satisfied.
This is not the language of struggle. It is the language of rest. Naphtali is not striving for blessing. He is resting in it.
Yet this satisfaction was not born from ease. It was forged in a broken household and within a fallen world.
To my knowledge, the Bible never says anything bad about the tribe of Naphtali. They do not commit terrible mistakes or horrible acts. The Bible does use negative imagery to describe Dan, calling him a snake. This is because Dan later worshipped the golden calf. As a result, Dan’s name was cut off from those who were marked in Revelation 7. Similarly, Benjamin was almost cut off from the twelve tribes because of the tribe’s sinful acts, as recorded in the book of Judges. But the imagery Jacob used for Naphtali is positive. He describes him as a deer. Similarly, Moses blesses Naphtali as someone sated with the favor of God and full of the blessings of the Lord. Even the Lord has nothing bad to say about him.
Together with the land of Zebulun, Naphtali forms part of the land of Galilee. In Isaiah 9:1, God said that even though this land was formerly disgraced, a great light would shine forth from it. Matthew quoted this prophecy as a way to confirm the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of Peter, which both began in Galilee. Naphtali was a seaport that was heavily used for fishing, and now it would become a port for bringing people into the Kingdom of God. Peter became a “fisher of men” in the land of Galilee.
Moses blesses Naphtali by saying he will inherit the lake (or sea in some translations) and the south. We know that Naphtali’s land is in the north, yet his destiny is to possess the sea and the south. The sea may represent the Gentile people who will come into the kingdom at the end of time. The south may refer to Jerusalem, which is in the south. It also may refer to the Jewish nation as a whole. When Naphtali experiences God’s salvation and the joy of His forgiveness, this tribe may spread God’s glad tidings to the sea, to the Gentile nations, to the south, to Jerusalem, and to all the Jews.
God promises that one day the whole house of Israel will be saved, after the number of the Gentiles who will be saved is complete. Perhaps this future salvation of Jews will begin with the tribe of Naphtali and then spread among the nations to bring the Gospel back to the Jews. You never know. God promises that one day he will gather all Jews from all corners of the earth and bring them back to the Holy Land. As the recipient of God’s favor and blessing, Naphtali surely will be a part of this prophetic future. They will surely bring glad tidings via the sea to the world, and bring the Gospel to the south, which is Jerusalem.
Devotional Reflection
Lord,
Search my heart.
Expose the places where pain has taught me to hide.
Heal the places where wounds have taught me to strike.
Teach me to run free like Naphtali.
Teach me to rest in favor rather than fight for validation.
I give You my history.
I surrender my reactions.
I choose Your process over my defenses.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reflective Questions
- Where have I allowed pain to coil inside my heart rather than releasing it to God?
- Do I respond like the serpent or like the deer when I am wounded?
- Am I hiding, striking, or learning to trust?
- What would it mean for me to be sated with favor rather than driven by resentment?
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