Our greatest strengths are often shrouded in weakness, and our brightest gifts carry a dark side. Or to put it the other way, the parts of us that are weakest may be where our greatest strengths are found. The things that we account as curses have blessings inside of them—if we are willing to give them to God and follow His ways. When you obey God, that part of you that causes you the most trouble on a day-to-day basis might just be the part of you that God will use to do great things for His kingdom.
For myself, I have many devastating weaknesses—things that get me into all kinds of trouble. Pride: I am very convinced that I am right. I’ve described myself as pathologically self-confident, which is bad when I’m wrong, and I too often am. I’m very easily distracted, which is bad when you have to write a sermon every week and you get distracted by every squirrel running by.
And yet, maybe—just maybe—in these areas where God made me different, in these areas where Satan knows my weak points and wages war, these places are the areas of my life that I need to submit most fully to God and give to His purposes so I can live out His calling. What if your dark side had a purpose? What if God meant it to be used for good and His glory? Let’s pray.
Oh Lord, I pray that You would illuminate Your Word for our hearts and minds to see Your purposes in it. Amen.
The Final Blessing of Moses
Our text begins: “This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death” (Deuteronomy 33:1). And this is really right before his death. He is getting up; he’s going to walk up the mountain and die right after this. This is his own funeral message.
I am struck by the fact that I’ve read Deuteronomy twenty times, and when I think about the end of Deuteronomy, I usually think of the curses: “You shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.” And yet, this is not the note that Moses ends with. He ends with a blessing—not a conditional blessing, but a blessing that they will have. Even as they will have to suffer through curses, even though all of these evils will come upon them, in the end, the blessing of God will reign.
Now, this kind of blessing would be familiar to the original audience because fathers in the Ancient Near East would give a blessing to their children before they died. This was not just some sentimental sendoff for the old man; these were a kind of legal statement about what the children would receive upon their father’s death. It was a last will and testament wrapped up in a prayer to God for one’s children.
You can find blessings like this in Genesis 27, where Jacob steals the blessing from his older twin brother, Esau. We see it notably with Jacob himself in Genesis 49, when he gives his blessing over his twelve sons—the twelve tribes of Israel—right before he dies. Genesis 49 and the end of Deuteronomy are so similar that it is very good to read them side by side.
So Moses is just about to go up the mountain and die, and he gives his last words:
“The Lord came from Sinai
and dawned from Seir upon us;
he shone forth from Mount Paran;
he came from the ten thousands of holy ones,
with flaming fire at his right hand.” (Deuteronomy 33:2)
Moses begins like he does in the entire Torah: with the fact that God is the one who initiates salvation for His people. It is not a religion of just doing better, but a religion of God saving by His mercy and grace. This passage marks their progression from Sinai as they came from the mountain flaming with fire. They passed by Seir and Mount Paran into the place where they first would go into the Promised Land—the Promised Land that they failed to enter because of their disobedience and faithlessness.
Now Moses reminds them that God is the God who will lead them still. He is the God who is a mighty, flaming fire, but also the tender Father who loves His people. Yes, He loved His people despite everything that happened at the mountain with the golden calf; despite the fact that they were going to be faithless again and again throughout the desert, He loved His people.
“Yes, he loved his people,
all his holy ones were in his hand;
so they followed in your steps,
receiving direction from you,
when Moses commanded us a law
as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.” (Deuteronomy 33:3–4)
Here it shifts to the third person because this kind of blessing was a legal statement—something they would repeat afterwards:
“Thus the Lord became king in Jeshurun,
when the heads of the people were gathered,
all the tribes of Israel together.” (Deuteronomy 33:5)
The King of Jeshurun
Now, “Jeshurun” is a little, weird word. You might think, What in the world is that? It’s like an affectionate pet name for Israel. In Hebrew, it functions like calling Matthew “Matty”—it is God’s tender name for His child, Israel.
I love the statement that “the Lord became king in Jeshurun.” Interestingly, this is the only time in all the books of Moses that God is explicitly referred to as king, even though He is presented that way everywhere, especially in the giving of the covenant.
This is an important moment because as Moses is about to die, they need to remember that Moses is not their king. Moses is not the one leading them into the Promised Land. God is King. God is the one leading them.
This is a great reminder for us, because so often we can get wrapped up in human leaders and say, “We’re following this man; we’re following this ministry.” I hate to break it to you, but people will let you down. Even if they don’t, someday they are going to die, and you cannot rely on them. But God is King forever. Jesus Christ is King and Lord forever, and if you truly follow Him, you will never be let down by Him.
The Dark Heritage of Levi
After remembering God’s work and declaring Him as King, Moses gives a blessing to each of the twelve tribes—blessings that are especially relevant in their upcoming conquest of the land, and blessings that contrast with Jacob’s previous blessings to point to a future ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
There are twelve blessings, but we’re only going to look at one, because the story is such a fascinating, epic redemption that it will take the whole sermon to tell: the blessing of the tribe of Levi.
It starts all the way back with Levi, who was addressed by his father hundreds of years before in Genesis 49, alongside his brother Simeon:
“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
weapons of violence are their swords.
Let my soul come not into their council;
O my glory, be not joined to their company;
for in their anger they killed men,
and in their self-will they hamstrung oxen.
Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.” (Genesis 49:5–7)
I call this a “blessing” in quotation marks, because this is a curse. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. This is as close as you get anywhere in Scripture to the idea of a generational curse. Because of Simeon and Levi’s wrath and violence, their children and their children’s children are going to suffer for it. They will be divided in the land.
This brings us back even further to Genesis 34, where a terrible event occurred: Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, was violated by a Canaanite prince named Shechem. Levi and Simeon launched a revenge plot. First, they tricked the men of the Canaanite city, saying, “You can marry our sister, just get circumcised, and then we’ll let you marry her.”
“On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males.” (Genesis 34:25)
I imagine Levi and Simeon here as some sort of cross between Conan the Barbarian and Rambo, defeating a whole town. Part of us wants to cheer a little bit: “They violated their sister—let’s kill them all!” But that’s not how God sees it. Their violent anger in causing the death of every man for the sin of one was not God’s way.
Jacob’s final words were in response to this action, and the curse of being scattered and divided came to pass. Simeon is not even mentioned in Moses’s blessing in Deuteronomy; they were absorbed into the middle of Judah, scattered about, and eventually disappeared as a distinct territory. Levi was also scattered, but in a very different way.
The Burden of Family Sins
Levi’s family issue was violent anger. Thankfully, no families around here struggle with that, right?
I probably have to mention this because it happened just today as we were preparing for Sunday school. We were bringing coleslaw, and I had gone outside, forgetting that there was more stuff for my wife to carry. She was carrying the coleslaw by herself along with lots of other things because I had forgotten. It fell on the ground and smashed. She was upset, then I was upset for some reason, and it was just… not good. So, I apologize from the pulpit!
Anger is not an uncommon sin to cling to a family, and it’s a dangerous one. Anger is destructive. Here, anger killed a whole town for the sin of one man. So Jacob gave Levi a curse: they would be divided; they would not have their own tribal allotment of land. They were barred from having a permanent home in the Promised Land.
Jesus tells us, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Levi and Simeon, being the wrathful, got no inheritance.
A Curse Turned to Blessing
Yet, despite all of this—despite this curse weighing on the family of Levi—when we get to Moses, the situation of Levi is totally different. They are still going to be scattered, but their scattering becomes a blessing instead of a curse.
“And of Levi he said,
‘Give to Levi your Thummim,
and your Urim to your godly one…'” (Deuteronomy 33:8)
This means that they are the priests. The sons of Aaron are given the Urim and Thummim—two gems likely kept in the pouch of the high priest’s garments. When there was a situation where they needed direct leading from the Lord, they would draw one out to see how God would lead them. This means the tribe of Levi is the tribe of priests who will be uniquely close to God as temple servants.
How did they get this blessing? Because the tribe of Levi passed a test that all Israel failed at Mount Sinai during the episode of the golden calf. As the blessing continues:
“…whom you tested at Massah,
with whom you strove at the waters of Meribah;
who said of his father and mother,
‘I regard them not’;
he disowned his brothers
and ignored his children.
For they observed your word
and kept your covenant.” (Deuteronomy 33:8–9)
In short, their curse became a blessing because of obedience.
Let’s go back to that event in Exodus 32. Israel had made a golden calf and was having a wild party celebrating their abomination. Moses came down the mountain, smashed the tablets of the law, stood up, and called out, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me!”
Judah? No one answered. Reuben? No one answered. Gad? No one answered. But all the sons of Levi gathered around him.
“And he said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.”‘ And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, ‘Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one of you at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.'” (Exodus 32:27–29)
Remember, swords were what got Levi into trouble in the first place! Levi originally received a curse for the unjust killing of the men of Shechem. But here, the curse is undone. They will not get an inheritance of land, but the Lord God will be their inheritance. They receive a deeper blessing because of their service to the Lord—the blessing to be ordained as priests and Levites.
Now, the violence here is hard to stomach. But they were saving the nation from total destruction at the cost of three thousand men who had turned to idolatry, cutting out the cancer before it spread. They did so at the express command of God—who cannot be criticized, because at the cost of His own Son, He wins salvation for us all, redeeming from the curse everyone who believes in Him.
Levi’s generational curse was broken by a moment of obedience to the Lord. They used their gift—even their dark gift—in service to God instead of merely serving themselves. “For they observed your word and kept your covenant.”
Redeemed for Sacred Purpose
So now, when Moses gives the blessing to the tribe, we read nothing of a curse, but only blessing. They will serve as priests; they will teach the law.
In 1 Chronicles, we see all the duties they receive. David said they shall have charge of the work of the house of the Lord: 6,000 shall be officers and judges—the people who once spurned the law to become vigilantes now serve as the law. 4,000 shall be gatekeepers—ironically, the very people who once broke down the gates. 4,000 shall offer praises to the Lord with instruments of praise.
This is the fulfillment of Moses’s blessing:
“They shall teach Jacob your rules
and Israel your law;
they shall put incense before you
and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
Bless, O Lord, his substance,
and accept the work of his hands;
crush the loins of his adversaries,
of those who hate him, that they rise not again.” (Deuteronomy 33:10–11)
The Levites were originally cursed by their father because of their reckless anger. But when that fierce nature was surrendered and bound in complete obedience to the service of God, that curse was redeemed to win Levi a special blessing.
If God used what was the deepest dysfunction of the Levites for good, He can do the same for you. If you submit your deepest problems to God’s command—if you yield your darkest dysfunctions to serve God’s design—maybe the thing you carry around as a curse can become a gift to serve Him in a unique way. Maybe the dark part of your personality is the very thing that God designed for special use for His glory.
Submitting the Dark Side to Christ
A word of caution here: Jesus warned, “All who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). This is not a call to validate our sinful impulses. We aim to be like Christ in every way. Even with the Levites, God ultimately did not make them warriors; they were not called to be David’s mighty men, but David’s temple keepers, teachers, and singers.
This is not a sermon to excuse sin. We need to put sin to death—to crucify it. But I want this to be an encouragement to see that the Levites are an example of a sinful propensity being transformed into a unique place of service to God.
If this is true for Levi, how much more is it true for us in Jesus Christ, who redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us on the tree? How much more through the Holy Spirit poured out on His church can the destructive elements of your personality be transformed as you are shaped by Christ?
Like Levi, we can only do good when we dedicate ourselves to follow God’s commands, keep His covenant, and love God and neighbor.
Consider Peter in the New Testament. His brash boldness and impulsive mouth got him into trouble all the time. Yet when that boldness was surrendered to the service of Christ and he stood up on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 souls were saved—coincidentally, the exact same number struck down on the day of the golden calf. Our weapon now is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Yielding Your Weakness to God
How does this apply to you? Let’s stay close to the text and talk about anger. Who here has gotten angry? Everyone raises their hand. Many of us, too much. Anger is dangerous; it is a sin that destroys relationships and eventually destroys yourself. But like Levi, if you submit it to God, it can become a weapon for good.
Who is God’s enemy? Satan. You can be angry at Satan, and you fight him in prayer. Instead of outbursts of sinful rage, that energy can drive you to your knees, bring righteous tears, and spur decisive action when it is given over to God.
Think of ambition—the drive for more. Sinfully, this results in greed and lust. But ambition given wholly over to God becomes a holy passion to see God’s will done in your life, your church, your community, your school, your workplace, and the world.
Could God redeem even something like depression? Depression is too broad a category to address fully here, but some people suffer because their temperament is deeply sensitive to the world’s pain and grief. When submitted to God, that sensitivity can bear great fruit. I think of the great preacher Charles Spurgeon, who struggled with intense melancholy in fits and bouts. Yet God used him mightily. Something in that temperament made him especially powerful against Satan and the darkness of this world; his tears became a sharp, poetic force when offered to God.
Close at hand to your sin is something that, when given wholly over to God, will result in blessing. Christian, do not despair over your weakness or your inherited struggles. When you obey God’s commands in faith, you might just find your greatest strength in the very areas where you struggle.
I think about myself. I was suspended from school in seventh grade for pushing a girl on the bus—a terrible thing. Her mom was dying of cancer; it was awful. I feuded with teachers in elementary school, high school, Bible college, and seminary because I was prideful and arrogant. I thought I was smarter than all my teachers—except for Miss Smith in kindergarten; she was great!
Along the way, I met God, and I realized I was not wiser than Him. I put my hand over my mouth; I could not contend with Him. Yet even my stubborn drive, when submitted to God, has been used for good—driving me to learn and to follow God with everything I have.
It isn’t as though you submit once and you’re good forever. The dark side remains dark if you feed it. But when we submit to God, it can be transformed.
Do not despair over the parts of yourself that seem unredeemable, for Christ can redeem even these. Give them to God, who is redeeming all things for His glory and grace. In the darkness, there is a gift to be used for God’s light. Amen.