Scripture Daily

Context No. 552 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Context · Reflection

Deuteronomy 33:12-17: in context

12About Benjamin he said, “The beloved of the LORD will dwell in safety by him. He covers him all day long. He dwells between his shoulders.” 13About Joseph he said, “His land is blessed by the LORD, for the precious things of the heavens, for the dew, for the deep that couches beneath, 14for the precious things of the fruits of the sun, for the precious things that the moon can yield, 15for the best things of the ancient mountains, for the precious things of the everlasting hills, 16for the precious things of the earth and its fullness, the good will of him who lived in the bush. Let this come on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the head of him who was separated from his brothers. 17Majesty belongs to the firstborn of his herd. His horns are the horns of the wild ox. With them he will push all the peoples to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim. They are the thousands of Manasseh.”

Moses, at the very end of his life, blesses the tribes of Israel one by one, and the blessing he speaks over Benjamin is one of the tenderest lines in the whole Bible. The beloved of the LORD, he says, will dwell in safety by him; he covers him all day long, and he dwells between his shoulders. Read that slowly, because it is a picture, not an abstraction. To be carried between someone's shoulders is to be held high and close against them, the way a father carries a small child on his back or in his arms, the child utterly safe and utterly at rest, borne along all day without having to hold on. That is how Moses describes the beloved of the LORD: covered, sheltered, carried close, all day long.

Notice the two words at the heart of it: beloved and safety. The beloved of the LORD dwells in safety, and the reason is that God himself covers him all day and carries him between his shoulders. The security is not something the beloved achieves or maintains by his own grip; it comes from being held by God, close against him, borne rather than left to walk it alone. This is not the language of a distant deity keeping watch from far off. It is the language of a parent carrying a beloved child, close enough to feel the warmth, high enough to be safe, held all day long.

That is an image worth resting into, especially when I feel exposed and unprotected, trudging through my days as though I had to hold myself together by my own strength. Moses says the beloved of the LORD does not walk alone and unheld; he is carried, covered all day long, dwelling in safety between God's shoulders. Do I live as one of God's beloved, sheltered and carried close against him through the whole of my day, or as someone left to walk it exposed and on my own, and what would change if I let myself be carried?

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