Deuteronomy 33: Moses’ Prophecies to the 12 Tribes

Rejoice, Issachar, in Your Tents

Recap: Zebulun and the Ministry of the Apostle

Welcome to Bible study with Jairus. We are going to study Deuteronomy 33 again, looking at the blessing and prophecy Moses spoke over Issachar. Yesterday I talked about the experience and application of Zebulun as the apostle, the sent out one. We looked at Zebulun’s character, how he grew up, and how his destiny was predestined by God to bring people, both Gentile and Jewish, to God, to bring the worship of justice up to the mountain of God. That was the experience of Zebulun, and how God determined and predestined that Jesus would begin his ministry in the land of Zebulun. This was a people who were looked down on in the earlier days, but God would bring the great light there. That’s also how God called Peter from there to become one of the greatest apostles. The way I bring that into the application for a modern Christian experience is this: all of God’s work starts with a humble beginning, and God often hides the greatest revival inside a very humble disguise.

Today we are going to talk about the experience of Issachar, and how his character was shaped. We’ll look at how his father saw him as a person of quietness before God, and how that character was used and transformed by God so that he could hear God’s voice, know God’s timing, and become a prophet for God among his people.

We will look at how the prophet Silas and the apostle Paul worked together to build the foundation of the early Church. This powerful New Testament pairing is actually mirrored in Moses’ ancient prophecy concerning Zebulun and Issachar. In this dynamic, Zebulun represents the modern apostle, while Issachar represents the modern prophet.

Together, these ministries work in harmony to bring glory to God. They call people to the holy mountain to offer right sacrifices, fulfilling the patterns hinted at in Moses’ prophecy. By drawing from the abundance of the sea, representing the Gentiles, and the hidden treasures of the sand, representing the Jews, they gather all of God’s chosen people into His kingdom. Finally, we will discuss the character of a prophet and how prophetic gifts should function in today’s church. By learning to balance the prophetic and apostolic gifts, we can unlock a more powerful working of the ministry of Jesus Christ in this New Testament age.

Opening Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you, to the throne of grace, in the name of Jesus Christ, through his precious blood. We come boldly to the throne of your grace to receive mercy, grace, and timely help. We acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is the same today as in the past. We recognize that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We recognize that the God of eternity is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What you revealed through Moses in the Old Testament is the same in principle as what you revealed to the apostle Paul in the New Testament. We ask for the cleansing of our members, our tongues, our ears, and our hearts. Circumcise our hearts. Apply your precious blood to our ears, and apply the anointing of the Holy Spirit to our ears and our hearts. Remove every veil, and give us a humble heart to listen to you speaking through the Holy Spirit. We humbly ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit to come and teach us, to bring us into the depths of the word of God, into the innermost desire of the heart of God, and into the love of Jesus Christ, which is the church. Let us learn from the Old Testament and the New Testament, from Moses, from Paul, from Jacob, and from Issachar, the lessons you taught them, so that we can better build up the body of Christ today. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, and we give glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Issachar: A Man Who Understood the Times

I already gave a very brief introduction, but I want to repeat it a little, so you have a better understanding. Basically, we are talking about the story of Issachar, who represents the gift of prophecy, because 1 Chronicles 12:32 says Issachar is a people who had an understanding of the times, so that they knew what Israel ought to do, with two hundred chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command. In other words, they knew what to do. That’s very important. This verse is often quoted as proof that Issachar was a tribe who understood prophetic timing and the revelation of God. We have prophetic gifts and we have people in the church today who can hear God’s voice.

The prophetic gift is often coupled with the gift of apostleship. The two are meant to work closely together, because in Ephesians the apostle Paul mentions the five great gifts Christ gave the church: first apostle, second prophet, then evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Those are the five major gifts in the body of Christ. Among the first two are the gift of apostleship and the gift of prophecy, and they have to work together.

Paul also mentions clearly that the New Testament church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. He was not referring to an Old Testament structure. He was referring to the church, which is, of course, a New Testament reality, not an Old Testament one. The church in the New Testament is built on the foundation of apostle and prophet.

I want to bring in the story of the conflict between Barnabas and the apostle Paul, and also the way the prophet Silas and the apostle Paul worked together, to illustrate how God built the New Testament church on the foundation of apostleship and prophecy. After that, I will come back to Deuteronomy 33:18-19, where Moses’ uses prophesies over Zebulun and Issachar, as types to point to the same spiritual principle: Zebulun is a type of the apostle, and Issachar is a type of the prophet.

Even in the Old Testament, in order to carry out God’s work of bringing all peoples from all nations, both Jew and Gentile, up to the mountain of God to offer right sacrifices, you needed Zebulun, who represents the apostle, or even the evangelist, rejoicing in his going out, working together with Issachar, who represents the prophet, rejoicing in his tents.  They work together to bring God’s people back to God.

Paul, Barnabas, and Silas

Let’s start with the apostle Paul, Barnabas, and Silas. Why do I bring this up? Many people know the story of the conflict between Barnabas and the apostle Paul. Barnabas is the one who introduced Paul to the disciples, back when Paul experienced his radical transformation. Paul wanted to become friends with, and have fellowship with, the believers and apostles in Jerusalem, but nobody would receive him. Only Barnabas received him. Scripture clearly records this in the book of Acts.

Barnabas was crucial in bringing the apostle Paul into his destiny. When Paul was led into the wilderness for a season of waiting on God, it was Barnabas who eventually went to where Paul was staying and brought him back onto the stage. I believe Paul was staying in a place called Tarsus.

The book of Acts says that it was Barnabas who went to Tarsus to bring Paul back into ministry, and the disciples finally accepted him. Barnabas was the instrument used by God to establish Paul as an apostle. I believe it’s in Acts 13, when the teachers and prophets were fasting and fellowshipping together, that the Holy Spirit spoke to them and told them to set apart Barnabas and Saul to do the work of the Lord. That was Barnabas and Paul’s calling and confirmation of the apostleship.

Later, Saul became Paul, and God used Barnabas and Paul as a pair of apostles. They were both apostles, because in Acts 13, the Holy Spirit spoke to the teachers and the prophets while they were fasting and praying together, telling them to set apart Barnabas and Saul, who later became Paul, to do the work of the Lord.

They began their ministry together as apostles, but later they got into an argument. The argument was about whether they should bring Mark along on their journey, since Mark had left them partway through the first one. Paul did not want to bring him, and Barnabas insisted on bringing him. Eventually they split up.

From that point on, Scripture never mentions Barnabas’s accomplishments again, even though God certainly used him to bring the apostle Paul into the ministry to become the leading apostolic disciple. Many people read this as simply a personnel issue, a disagreement over whether to bring Mark along. But it was actually much deeper than that. I’ve talked about this before in my study of the book of Acts.

Before this incident happened, Scripture mentions Silas for the first time. If you read the book of Acts, before the argument between Paul and Barnabas, Scripture mentions Silas. Scripture says that Silas and another brother were prophets. They knew the word of God, and they carried a word of prophecy from God.

They were sent to the church in Jerusalem, and they gave prophecy and encouragement to the believers there. The believers were encouraged, and Silas and the other prophet were praised among the brothers. Not only were they prophets, they were men of integrity, and they were praised among the believers.

After they finished their task, the disciples sent them off in peace. But the book of Acts clearly records that the other prophet left but Silas felt he should stay.

I don’t know if you remember this detail, but before the argument between Barnabas and Paul happened, God had already prepared Silas to stay in Jerusalem. Silas felt he should stay, though he didn’t fully know why. In the next chapter, the split between Barnabas and the apostle Paul takes place.

After that, Scripture never mentions Barnabas again, but it does record that Paul selected Silas. Then they went on their journey to preach the gospel. Later we read the story when Paul and Silas were in prison, singing praises to God, and an earthquake shook the prison. That’s what happened afterward. So we have to understand that the conflict between Barnabas and the apostle Paul went beyond a simple matter of who was best suited to travel with them.

It wasn’t just about one person. It was about how God would build the foundation of the New Testament church, because according to the apostle Paul, the foundation of the New Testament church has to be built on the gifts of the apostle and the prophet. Scripture never once mentions Barnabas as a prophet. Scripture mentions him as an apostle. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, but Scripture never calls him a prophet. So, in God’s design, the apostle Paul needed to work with a prophet in order to build up the foundation of the New Testament church. Who was that prophet God was preparing? It was Silas.

Before the argument happened, God had already brought Silas into Jerusalem, and Silas and his companion finished their task there. They had a good testimony, and their words of prophecy encouraged the believers there. The other prophet had already left, since the brothers sent him off with a blessing, but Silas felt he should stay. If you don’t believe it, go back and read the book of Acts. It clearly happened before the conflict between Barnabas and the apostle Paul.

God was preparing to bring Silas into companionship, into partnership with the apostle Paul, not Mark. In a sense, Paul was following the leading of the Holy Spirit, because he understood, as an apostle, that he needed to work with a prophet. That prophet, chosen by the Holy Spirit, was Silas, in order to build up the foundation of the church. This isn’t to say Barnabas wasn’t good. Barnabas was a good man according to Scripture, but in a sense his season of ministry had passed.

Barnabas, John the Baptist, and the Land of Zebulun

Barnabas represented the previous stage of God’s work, preparing the way for the ministry of the apostle Paul. His ministry was similar to that of John the Baptist, who ushered in the ministry of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, once the time for the ministry of Jesus was ready, John the Baptist was killed, and Jesus withdrew to Galilee after John’s death and began his ministry as an apostle.

Jesus is the greatest apostle. As we explored yesterday, the land of Zebulun was predestined by God to raise up both the ministry of Jesus and the apostolic ministry of Peter. For a season, God allowed a humble, overlooked people to come from Zebulun, just as Isaiah prophesied in chapter 9. Yet, in that very same chapter, Isaiah prophesied that a child would be born to us.

God’s grandest work is always hidden inside a humble beginning. The ultimate ministry of Jesus and the great apostolic foundation of Peter both emerged from the land of Zebulun. That is the essence of apostleship. Ultimately, God determined that this apostolic work, later carried out by the apostle Paul, must be paired with the work of a prophet. While Jesus Christ holds all authority within Himself as both apostle and prophet, He models this beautiful partnership for us.

Everyone else must be paired with a companion. This is the principle of the body, because God does not give all the gifts to any single person. Even the apostle Paul did not possess every spiritual gift. He still needed a partner who carried the prophetic gift, and God provided Silas. His design for building the New Testament church was to bring together the work of apostleship, represented by Paul, and the gift of prophecy, represented by Silas.

After the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas took place, the Holy Spirit recorded through Luke that Paul selected Silas. This was entirely part of God’s strategic design. Silas had previously come to Jerusalem, finished his assignment there, and earned a good testimony while encouraging the brothers. The Book of Acts records that the believers sent the prophets off with expectations for them to return home. However, Scripture notes that only Silas felt a distinct prompting to stay behind. This was the direct leading of the Holy Spirit, who was preparing Silas to step into the role Barnabas left behind. By working alongside the apostle Paul, Silas helped build the early Church on the foundational partnership of apostle and prophet, exactly as Paul described in his letters.

Why Apostle and Prophet Must Work Together

Why is it so important for apostleship and prophecy to work together? The apostle is like the head of God’s building project. He knows the overall design, but he may not be especially prophetic. He needs someone strongly prophetic, like Silas, who can receive a fresh revelation from God at any moment. The apostle represents the law in the Old Testament sense, presenting the character of God, the life of God, and the principle of God through the word of God. The apostles wrote what became the New Testament writings, and the Old Testament law gives us the principled guidance of God. But the prophet receives a living, spoken word from God, a constant, updated, moment by moment revelation that leads us in each new situation.

I always say the structure of the Bible falls into two categories: the character and principle of God, revealed through the law, and the leading of God, revealed through the prophets. That’s the overall structure in the Old Testament. You either know the principle of God, as revealed through Moses, or you know the leading of God, as revealed through the prophets. God’s principle never changes, but God’s leading is constantly changing. You cannot turn God’s leading from a previous movement into a fixed ritual or a fixed document, or you will lose the leading of God for this present hour. At the same time, you cannot violate the principle of God without truly knowing the nature of God.

The general function of apostleship is to help the people of God know the principle and nature of God through the word of God. The general function of the prophet is to receive a living word from God, a constant leading that speaks into each different hour. God may give one person a certain leading and another person a different leading, because God’s leading is constantly changing depending on the situation.

In the structure of the New Testament church, you have to be tuned in to the principle of God and also tuned in to God’s leading. You cannot violate the principle of God in building a church, and you cannot disobey His leading either, or things will fall into confusion. That’s God’s design: to pair the work of apostleship, which helps people know God in his nature, with the prophetic voice of God, which brings fresh vision. Without vision, the people perish. The apostle draws the blueprint of God’s work, but the prophet leads step by step to finish the building.

Zebulun and Issachar in Moses’ Blessing

This same fundamental principle is hinted at and revealed in the prophecy Moses gave regarding the brothers Zebulun and Issachar. I’ve mentioned before why Zebulun represents the ministry of apostleship. First, Zebulun is the place where the ministry of Jesus began. Who else can compare to that? Zebulun is also the place where Peter’s ministry began. I’m not sure exactly where Tarsus is located; it might be within the region of Zebulun. If that’s true, then Paul’s ministry may also have started there, though I’d have to investigate that further.

As explained earlier, God predestined Zebulun to be temporarily overlooked. Later, a great light would be revealed to its people. This region is where Jesus began his ministry. After John the Baptist was beheaded, Jesus withdrew from the religious center of Jerusalem. He moved into the despised region of Zebulun and Naphtali near the Sea of Galilee. This area was once called Galilee of the Gentiles.

The ministries of Jesus Christ and the apostle Peter represent two of God’s greatest movements. Both began in a place of humble disregard. This humble origin defines the ministry of Zebulun, which represents the ministry of apostleship.

This history provides a convincing argument. No other works compare to the ministries of Jesus and Peter. Yet, both started from Zebulun. Furthermore, Moses’ prophecy commands Zebulun to go out with joy and rejoice in their journey

When you go out to start your ministry, to become an evangelist, to become an apostle, you should be full of joy, because you will be working together with Issachar, who stays in the tent like a prophet, praying, interceding, hearing God’s voice in quietness and waiting. Issachar is told to rejoice in staying in his tent. He is not the one going out. He is not the apostle. He is the prophet. He didn’t do what the apostle Paul did, but he did something the apostle Paul could not do, which is to hear God’s voice in a particular way.

I’m not saying the apostle Paul couldn’t hear God’s voice. He did hear God’s voice. Jesus stood by his side, and he had dreams and visions. But the gift of prophecy, the prophetic gift, was much stronger in Silas than in the apostle Paul. Scripture never calls Paul a prophet, but Scripture clearly calls Silas a prophet.

The prophetic gift, the prophetic ministry, is represented by Issachar. As I mentioned, 1 Chronicles 12:32 describes Issachar as having an understanding of the times, knowing what Israel ought to do. They were a prophetic people. And Issachar stayed in the tent. Why? I’ll explain this through the prophecy Jacob gave over Issachar a little later, but for now, understand that Zebulun and Issachar worked together.

Together they bring about God’s finished work. This is revealed in Moses’ blessing over Zebulun and Issachar in Deuteronomy 33:19. “For they shall call peoples to their mountain, and there they offer right sacrifices.” Peoples here does not mean only the Jewish people, but people among the Gentiles as well. I mentioned this from the book of Isaiah, that in the last days, when the Gentiles hear that the Messiah has become king in Zion, they will take hold of the garments of the Jewish people among the nations and say, please bring us to worship your king.

Eventually the Jews will become priests, bringing the Gentiles into the worship of God. Together, Zebulun and Issachar call people to their mountain, which is Jerusalem, Zion, to worship, to offer right sacrifices. And, as I mentioned, they also draw from the abundance of the sea.

This is part of Moses’ blessing over both Zebulun and Issachar. I’ve explained that the sea represents the Gentile world, because Jesus clearly describes, in his parable of the end of the age, a net cast into the sea, gathering every kind of sea creature. The good will be kept and the bad thrown away. In the same way, Jesus says that at the end of the age, the angels will gather both the good and the bad, keeping the good and burning the bad. He was speaking about the harvest at the end of the age.

So, the abundance of the sea refers to the treasure of people, both Jew and Gentile, but especially the Gentiles that Jesus Christ died for. And, of course, the hidden treasures of the sand, in Moses’ blessing over both Zebulun and Issachar, refer to the Jews, because the Lord clearly told Abraham that his descendants would be like the stars in the heavens and the sand by the sea.

That is God’s calling, and God’s principle of pairing, of bringing apostleship and prophecy to work together. This is revealed not only in the New Testament, where the apostle Paul says the New Testament church is built on the foundation of apostle and prophet, but also in the prophecy Moses gave over Zebulun and Issachar. They are prophesied together, as a pair. Zebulun rejoices as he goes out, and Issachar rejoices in his tent, and together they call people to their mountain, they offer right sacrifices, and they draw from the abundance of the sea and the hidden treasures of the sand.

Both the Old Testament and New Testament stories point to the same principle: God’s design is to bring apostleship together with prophecy, in order to build up the body of Christ, and to fulfill the work of God, bringing both Jews and Gentiles into the kingdom of God. As I mentioned, the apostle carries the general blueprint, the overall structure of God’s design. In a sense, he’s like a chief executive, holding the overall blueprint of God’s work. That’s his responsibility, to make sure the building of God is not deviated from God’s design. But he may not have the time, or the gift, to finish every room, because each room is different, and each design is different. You need a prophetic gift to receive God’s constant illumination in every matter, regarding every person.

The Danger of Losing Either Gift

Today, in many, many traditional churches, the gifts of prophecy are looked down on. Eventually, to the point where the church becomes legalistic and rigid, controlled by doctrine, by man, and by tradition, they no longer have the fresh vision, the fresh word, that comes through the prophetic gift. If you despise the prophetic gift in the church, you will lose vision, and you will perish. On the other hand, if you lean only on the prophetic gift without the firm foundation of apostleship, without truly knowing the word of God, the people of God will also perish, this time for lack of knowledge. They become captive because of a lack of knowledge.

In Hosea 4:6, scripture tells us that God’s people are destroyed or taken captive because they lack knowledge. You will perish if you lack the knowledge of God. This essential knowledge comes through apostolic teaching, the law of God, and the Word of God. It is the general structure and principle of God laid out in scripture. This truth is found in the Old Testament through Moses and in the New Testament through the apostles’ writings. Without it, you do not know God or His principles.

Furthermore, Proverbs 29:18 explains that when God’s people lack vision, they run wild and are cast off. These represent two distinct aspects of God’s work. You need vision to keep you from wandering off course. You also need the knowledge of God through apostolic teaching to prevent you from being taken captive.

This is why God designed the New Testament church to be built on the foundation of apostle and prophet. The apostle helps you understand the nature of God and gain the knowledge of God, the principle of God. The prophet helps you receive a vision of God so you don’t go astray.

If you don’t have the vision of God, like the Israelites during the time of the judges, who simply did whatever seemed right in their own eyes, you’ll have no vision at all. In today’s New Testament church, a lot of congregations are deeply committed to studying the word of God, but they despise the gift of prophecy, so they lack vision. Eventually the dogmatic teaching, the tradition of men, the religious tradition, blinds their hearts.

Other churches are open to the prophetic gifts, but they don’t have a firm foundation in the understanding of the word of God, so they go astray, deceived by evil spirits. This has happened repeatedly in the history of American Christianity. In the 1970s, there was a prophetic movement predicting the return of the Lord Jesus in 1979. People waited for the Lord’s coming on a mountain, or became preoccupied with which day the Lord would come, or which day God would send a great earthquake to sink California into the ocean. That’s really what happened in the prophetic movement in the United States. Many people believed the prophecy that God would send an earthquake to sink California into the ocean. So, they lost their balance. That covers my first section. I wanted to give you a picture, through the story of the apostle Paul and Silas, and also through the pairing of Zebulun and Issachar, of how God designed apostle and prophet to work together.

When they work together, they not only know the nature of God and the overall blueprint of God’s building, they also know what to do in each specific case, because you need a prophet to hear from God, to know what God desires in each different situation.  Now, in the second section, I want to talk about the character of a prophet.

The Character of a Prophet

When I first started learning about prophetic gifts, in the modern prophetic movement, I came from a Local Church Movement that placed a strong emphasis on the teaching gift. Everyone was encouraged to become a teacher, to teach, to speak for God. I was very appreciative of that, because that’s where I learned the teaching gift. But after thirteen years there, God led me into a more prophetic movement in 2015. I received a strong baptism of the Holy Spirit, and afterward I began to have prophetic dreams and visions into the spiritual world.

I was eager to learn about the prophetic gifts, so I listened to a lot of teaching on the subject. One prophetic teacher, speaking from his own experience, said that prophetic people are often quiet, sometimes socially awkward. Basically, you’re not naturally a people person, not like those called to be evangelists, who are welcome everywhere they go and can talk with anybody. Evangelists are like that. But people called to the prophetic tend to be more introverted, quiet, and socially awkward. They tend to spend more time alone, praying to God, waiting on the Lord, listening for his voice.

I don’t know if that resonates with you, but I believe it’s true. Issachar had this same characteristic, and his father observed it and recorded it in Genesis 49:14-15. When Jacob was prophesying over his twelve sons, he recognized each one’s character, and how God would deal with them in the future. Here is what he observed about Issachar. In verses 14-15 of Genesis 49, he says this regarding Issachar. “Issachar is a strong donkey.” He’s strong. A donkey can be stubborn at times, but doesn’t talk much, and simply works hard, “crouching between the sheepfolds.” We know that sheepfolds often represent the people of God. The apostle Paul mentions that the law kept Israel within a kind of sheepfold, and in the New Testament we continue to use the image of the sheepfold to represent the church, the people of God. So Issachar was like a strong donkey. He was strong, but not especially violent.

He could be stubborn, but not in a violent way. He wasn’t like a wolf that harms the sheepfold, the way Jacob describes Benjamin. Jacob calls Benjamin a wolf, remember? And Issachar wasn’t a lion, like Judah, the lion of the tribe of Judah. He also wasn’t cunning like a snake.

He was not a snake, a lion, or a wolf. He was considered a donkey, and a donkey could be stubborn, but it could also be quiet, patiently bearing whatever burden was placed on it. That’s how Jacob observed Issachar’s character, as a donkey.

Jacob continues to describe what he sees in Issachar’s character. In verse 15 of Genesis 49, Jacob says that Issachar saw that a resting place was good. That means Issachar was a person of quietness, most likely an introvert. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” If you want to be a prophet, if you want to hear God’s word, and you cannot be quiet before God, I don’t think you’ll be able to hear God’s voice clearly.

Even one of the greatest prophets, Elijah, did not hear God’s voice in the thunder or the storm, but in a still small voice. If you want to hear God’s voice, you have to practice quietness before God, and wait in his presence. This characteristic is certainly revealed in Issachar’s life. As Jacob mentions in verse 15, he saw that a resting place was good.

He was a quiet person, resting. He was resting in the sheepfolds among the people of God, crouching there, and the land was pleasant to him. He was enjoying the land God had given him. He bowed his shoulder to bear the load. He was submissive, willing to do hard work, willing to become a servant at forced labor. In China, we often use donkeys to do a lot of the labor. I grew up in a rural area, and I observed donkeys a lot. Sometimes a donkey gets cranky, especially when it sees a horse, but most of the time a donkey is hardworking, without complaint.

It carries a certain characteristic. We often say in Chinese that you serve like a donkey, but sometimes a donkey gets cranky. Still, the majority of the time, a donkey is hardworking, resting, and meek. That’s the character trait Jacob observed in his son Issachar. In other words, when God formed Issachar in Leah’s womb, God was forming him to become a prophet one day.

His tribe would become a prophetic tribe, as I mentioned from 1 Chronicles 12:32. They are described as a prophetic tribe. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul reminds us that we are not all ears, we are not all eyes, we are not all mouths, and we should not despise one another. We should work together to bring glory to each other and to the body of Christ, to the building up of God’s temple.

How Issachar Was Born

How did Issachar become such a person? Let’s look at how he was born. As I mentioned yesterday, Rachel was struggling to have a child. Reuben found mandrakes in the wheat field, and Rachel wanted some of them. Leah was not happy about that.

I mentioned that mandrakes were probably very hard to find, and according to some legend, they were believed to have a medicinal effect that could help with Rachel’s barrenness. They were rare. So, Leah’s response was, “Is it not enough that you have taken my husband, that you would also take my son’s mandrakes?” Rachel agreed.

Leah essentially rented Jacob for the price of the mandrakes. When Jacob came back from the field, Leah told him he had to sleep with her that night, because she had hired him with her son’s mandrakes. Genesis 30:17-18 records that God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I gave my servant to my husband.” This is why she named him Issachar. Issachar means wages, or reward. This is a fitting picture of the price Jesus Christ would pay to buy us back, because the wages of sin is death. Issachar is also, in a small way, a type of Christ, just as Jesus is described by Isaiah as one led like a sheep to the shearers without complaint. That, too, is a picture of Jesus Christ.

Closing Thoughts

I’ll finish this section here. The concluding thought is this: today, God still desires to build up his church by pairing the ministry of the apostle with the ministry of the prophet. This principle is revealed in the story of the conflict between Barnabas and the apostle Paul. It wasn’t that God didn’t like Mark. No, Mark is never described in Scripture as either a prophet or an apostle.

The Holy Spirit clearly identified Silas as a prophet. God wanted to advance His work into a new stage by pairing Paul’s apostleship with Silas’s prophetic ministry. This partnership directly led to the prison miracle. As they prayed and worshiped, God sent an earthquake and opened the prison gates. Sometimes, it takes a prophetic presence to bring about that kind of miracle.

An apostle can certainly operate alone, but the power multiplies when apostleship and prophecy work together. This synergy appears in both testaments. In the Old Testament, Moses prophesied over Zebulun. This region represents the emergence of the apostolic gift, as both Jesus and Peter began their ministries there. When those going out cooperate with those staying in the tents, God’s Great Commission is fulfilled. Together, they bring all people to the mountain of right sacrifice, drawing from the abundance of the sea and the hidden treasures of the sand. God designed this union of apostleship and prophecy to fulfill His economy, because only Jesus is perfect on His own.

He is both prophet and apostle at once, but God desires that we, in the body of Christ, work with one another. If you carry the gift of apostleship, or the gift of teaching, you should not despise the gift of prophecy. You should humble yourself to listen to other people’s prophetic words. And if you are a prophet, don’t assume that everything you need is revealed to you directly. You have to learn from apostleship, from teachers, to learn the principle of God.

Eventually, this comes into balance, into the kind of fruit we see in the book of Acts, when the teachers and the prophets, one strong in doctrine, one strong in revelation, came together to fast, and God brought forth great apostles. I hope this has helped us better understand Moses’ prophecy here. It’s a little deep, but I hope you got something out of it.  Please help us by liking, forwarding, commenting, or reposting this teaching, and you’re welcome to leave us a Google review on our Jairus Bible World Ministry Google Map listing. Thank you for tuning in, see you next time.