Asher

Asher (Hebrew Asher, "happy" or "blessed") was the eighth son of Jacob, born to Zilpah, Leah's maidservant. At his birth Leah exclaimed, "Happy am I! For the women have called me happy," and so named him (Genesis 30:13). From his four sons and a daughter Serah sprang one of the twelve tribes of Israel, whose name and patriarchal blessings alike struck the note of prosperity and favour.

The dying Jacob foretold the tribe's lot in terms of plenty: "Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies" (Genesis 49:20). Moses' blessing was warmer still: "Most blessed of sons be Asher; let him be the favourite of his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil. Your bars shall be iron and bronze, and as your days, so shall your strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:24–25). These promises matched the inheritance the tribe received — a fertile strip along the Mediterranean coast of the far northwest, reaching from the slopes of Mount Carmel up toward Sidon, rich in grain, olive groves, and oil (Joshua 19:24–31).

Yet Asher's history is marked by ease and compromise. The tribe failed to drive out the Canaanite inhabitants of Acco, Sidon, and other strongholds, dwelling instead among them (Judges 1:31–32), and in Deborah's song it was rebuked for staying by its harbours rather than joining the LORD's battle: "Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings" (Judges 5:17). Still, the tribe was not wholly faithless: men of Asher rallied to Gideon against Midian (Judges 6:35; Judges 7:23), and long afterward some of Asher humbled themselves to keep Hezekiah's great Passover in Jerusalem when most of the north refused (2 Chronicles 30:11).

The New Testament gives Asher a place of honour at the threshold of the gospel: the aged prophetess Anna, of the tribe of Asher, who worshipped night and day in the temple, recognized the infant Jesus and spoke of him to all who awaited the redemption of Jerusalem (Luke 2:36–38). And Asher stands among the twelve tribes of the sealed servants of God in the Revelation (Revelation 7:6). Thus the tribe whose very name means "blessed" both displays the rich abundance of God's favour and warns, by its complacency, that earthly plenty without wholehearted devotion is a peril — even as faithful Anna shows that a believing remnant within it laid hold of the truest blessing in Christ.