Genesis 49:18
‘”I have waited for Your salvation, O Lord!” Genesis 49:18. Thus uttered the then dying Jacob, to his gathered children. Genesis 49:18
Calvin commented: “What occasion induced the holy man to break the connection of his discourse (blessing his family) — and suddenly to burst forth in this expression?…. When he (Jacob) perceived…the condition of his offspring continually exposed to various changes and…tossed by storms which would almost overwhelm them — he was moved with solicitude and fear….
“In order that he might rise against every kind of temptation, with victorious constancy of mind — he commits himself to the Lord Who had promised that He would be the guardian of His people…. He waited for the salvation of the Lord…. His best remedy, was to oppose to it this shield….
“I doubt not also, that he would advise his sons to rise with him to the exercise of the same confidence…. He could not be the author of his own salvation. It was necessary for him to repose upon the promise of God.
“In the same manner also, we must today hope for the salvation of the Church. For although it seems to be tossed on a turbulent sea and almost sunken in the waves, and though still greater storms are to be feared in the future — yet amidst manifold destructions, salvation is to be hoped for in that deliverance which the Lord has promised…..
“Jacob, foreseeing by the Spirit…, was contending against these temptations (or trials)…. He expected salvation not for himself alone, but for all his posterity…. He exhibits the life-giving covenant of God to many generations, so as to prove his own confidence that after his death God would be faithful to His promise….
“With his last breath, and as if in the midst of death, he laid hold of eternal life…. He, amidst obscure shadows relying on a redemption seen afar off, boldly went forth to meet death.
“What ought we to do, on whom the clear day has shined? Or what excuse remains for us, if our minds fail amidst similar agitations?”
In his Institutes II:10:14, Calvin adds: “In the whole course of their lives, they (Jacob and his sons) had an eye to future blessedness…. He (Jacob) declared in one of the last sentences he uttered: ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O God!’ (Genesis 49:18). What salvation could he have waited for, when he felt himself breathing his last — if he did not see in death the beginning of a new life?….
“If death were the goal and ultimate limit — no distinction could be observed between the righteous and the wicked! The true distinction, is the different lot which awaits them — after death!”
I have waited for Your salvation, O Lord!
