It’s no wonder that the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, the region of Galilee, was considered a place of darkness. Towns had been sold to the Gentile Hiram, and apparently pronounced worthless (1 Kings 9). This region was the first to go into exile (2 Kings 15:29), and the Assyrians resettled Gentiles in the land (2 Kings 17). Galilee was not a thoroughly Gentile region, but it was considered a borderland, not quite fully Gentile but not quite fully Jewish either.
Yet the name “Zebulun” contained a promise of restoration. Like all the names of Jacob’s sons, “Zebulun” is a pun. When Leah bore a sixth son to Jacob, she said, “God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband will dwell ( zabal ) with me, because I have born him six sons.”
Matthew records the fulfillment of this hope, for Jesus withdraws from Judea to Galilee to “dwell” in Capernaum (Matthew 4:13). Zebulun becomes truly Zebulun, the place of dwelling for the divine husband of Israel.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
