How does Jacob know this?
49 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. 2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
How does Jacob know this? People have the wrong understanding concerning prophecy.
3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: 4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
Jacob knew Reuben's sin, his shortcoming, his lack of control. You cannot excel if you are unstable and lack self control. If I have an apple seed I know what I will get if I plant this seed. This is the issue with Reuben. Suppose your father, or grandfather or great grandfather had this issue. You can have a generational curse that will last for four generations. However, you can pray, confess, repent, and plead the blood of Jesus to break this curse.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. 6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. 7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
These two are fierce, cruel, and full of wrath. What do you do with someone like this? Divide them and scatter them. Do you understand, you reap what you sow. Jacob sees what they are sowing, so he knows what they will be reaping. These two represent the military and the priesthood. What do we do with our military bases? We scatter them all over the country and all over the world. The same thing with our priests. Everyone of us has a problem with our anger, if you do not deal with it you too will be scattered. Pray that the Lord will fill you, that the Lord will replace your anger with His love.
8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. 9 Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: 12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
So this is strange, we see that Judah will be praised, but why? Does he have self control? Does he control his anger? No, it is because he washed his garments in the Lord's blood. When you are worshipping and praising the Lord, then His blood is like wine and like milk. Jesus is the vine, binding your colt unto the vine, in other words he attaches himself to the vine tree, Jesus Christ and the Church. How often do we hear those "binding the enemy". How about binding your colt to the vine. Your colt takes you where you want to go, with Reuben that was to pursue his lusts, with Simeon and Levi that was to satisfy their anger and fierce wrath. So instead of focusing on "the enemy" how about focusing on your colt, bind it to the vine.
Do you understand, prophecy is not about telling you what will happen in two years, it is about identifying the issue that you need to deal with in your life, the issue that will be your undoing, and about pointing out how to deal with it. How to wash your garments and how to feed your soul.