Bible Study with Jairus – Deuteronomy 33:18–19
Rejoice, Zebulun, in Your Going Out:
A Study of Humiliation, Dwelling, and Mission
We are continuing our study of Deuteronomy 33. It is Moses’ blessing to the twelve tribes of Israel. Each tribe carries a distinct story, a distinct failure, and a distinct expression of God’s salvation. None of them are interchangeable. Together, they form a complete testimony of how God transforms sinners into sons, and sons into living stones in His eternal dwelling.
Today, we turn our attention to Zebulun, the last son of Leah.
Zebulun is a tribe many believers know almost nothing about. Judah is familiar. Issachar is often celebrated for discernment. Joseph’s suffering and exaltation are widely preached. Benjamin is remembered for strength and warfare.
But Zebulun? Most Christians struggle to describe his calling at all.
That lack of familiarity is itself revealing. Zebulun’s story is not obvious. It does not announce itself. It requires careful listening, patient interpretation, and spiritual insight. And yet Scripture preserves three separate prophetic witnesses concerning Zebulun: from Jacob, from Moses, and from Isaiah. When Scripture speaks about something three times, it signals an invitation for us to pay attention.
Zebulun’s calling is especially important for believers who have experienced humiliation, obscurity, or contempt, because his destiny is forged precisely through those conditions.
To understand Zebulun, we must first understand the role of the twelve tribes as a whole.
The twelve tribes are not merely ethnic divisions. They are prophetic stories of salvation. Each tribe represents a different human failure and a different aspect of God’s redemptive work. Taken together, they reveal the full arc of salvation history.
The apostle Paul makes this clear in Romans. Whether Jew or Gentile, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:9–23 ESV). Yet salvation does not end at forgiveness. It moves toward transformation, maturity, and glory. Scripture uses different Greek words to describe this progression: children of God, heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ, mature sons.
Romans 8 tells us that creation itself is waiting for the revealing of these sons. When they enter into glory, creation will be liberated from corruption.
This story reaches its climax in the New Jerusalem.
In John’s vision, the city has twelve gates, and each gate bears the name of one of the tribes of Israel. Each gate is made of a single pearl. No one enters the city except through these gates.
This tells us something crucial: God’s work with Israel is not bypassed in the New Testament. It is fulfilled. Jews and Gentiles are joined together into one new humanity, built upon Christ the cornerstone.
The pearl itself explains the process. A pearl is formed through injury. When an oyster is wounded by a foreign irritant, it does not reject it violently. Instead, it releases life, layer upon layer, transforming pain into beauty.
Israel wounded Christ. Christ responded with life.
From that wound came a gate of salvation.
Zebulun must be understood within this framework.
Zebulun as a Dwelling Place
Zebulun was the last son born to Leah.
Leah lived with rejection. Jacob loved Rachel but merely tolerated Leah. Her sons were born into a household filled with rivalry, neglect, and emotional imbalance. Zebulun did not enter a peaceful family story. He entered a painful one.
His name means “to dwell” or “to honor.” After giving birth to Zebulun, Leah declared that now her husband would dwell with and honor her (Genesis 30:19–20 ESV).
This is not accidental language.
Later, Scripture uses marriage to describe something far greater than human romance. Paul explains that marriage is a mystery pointing to Christ and the church, the union between God and humanity. Zebulun’s very name carries the idea of divine dwelling, of God making His home with people.
Zebulun was born with a purpose already inscribed into his identity. He was destined to be associated with God’s dwelling, even though his beginnings were marked by rejection and obscurity.
Calling does not erase pain. In fact, calling often grows out of it.
Jacob’s Prophecy: Life at the Shore
Jacob’s blessing over Zebulun is brief:
“Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea;
he shall become a haven for ships,
and his border shall be at Sidon.”
At first glance, this sounds unimpressive. No royal authority, overflowing abundance, or promises of dominance.
But Jacob is not speaking in one-dimensional terms.
Zebulun is placed at the edge.
At the border.
A harbor is not a throne room. It is exposed and vulnerable. It is often looked down upon by those who live inland. Harbors are messy places where people come and go, cultures mix, and stability feels fragile.
Yet harbors are essential.
Jacob reveals Zebulun’s destiny as a gateway tribe. He is positioned where Israel meets the nations. Sheep find refuge there. Ships launch from there.
Zebulun is not called to rule from the center.
He is called to send from the edge.
Moses’ Prophecy: Call the Peoples
Then Moses clarifies Zebulun’s calling in Deuteronomy 3:18–19:
“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out…
They shall call peoples to the mountain;
there they shall offer right sacrifices.
For they draw from the abundance of the seas
and the hidden treasures of the sand.”
Here, Zebulun’s mission becomes explicit.
His joy is found in going out and calling the peoples, not just Israel. His inheritance comes from both sea and sand.
In biblical imagery, the sea often represents the Gentile nations. The sand recalls God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand on the shore.
Zebulun is called to gather both.
This aligns perfectly with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9–11: The salvation of the Gentiles and the salvation of Israel are not competing stories. They are interwoven. God uses one to provoke the other, until both are brought into fullness.
Zebulun stands at that intersection.
Isaiah’s Prophecy: From Contempt to Light
Isaiah reveals the cost of this calling:
“In the former time he brought into contempt
the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
but in the latter time he has made glorious
the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the nations.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.”
Before glory comes humiliation.
Zebulun’s land becomes Galilee, a region despised by religious elites. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth [located in Galilee]?” (John 1:46 ESV) was not an idle question. It was a cultural judgment.
Yet Isaiah declares that this very place would see the great light first.
And Matthew tells us plainly that this prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus began His ministry in Galilee, in the region of Zebulun. From there, He preached repentance and called fishermen like Peter and Andrew. From there, the kingdom of God began to spread.
God hid His greatest revelation in the most despised place.
Zebulun Fulfilled in Christ
Jesus embodied Zebulun’s calling.
He lived by the sea, gathered fishermen, called the nations, and revealed divine light even in the confines of human humility.
Zebulun’s destiny was never about prestige. It was about mission.
Zebulun’s story continues in the church today.
God repeatedly chooses people and places marked by humiliation to initiate revival. He strips away pride. He dismantles false strength. He prepares vessels that will go out with joy, not domination. And often his vessels are found in the most unlikely and humble places.
Growing up in rural China, I experienced much humiliation. Even after coming to the United States, I often felt shame and embarrassment. My wife and I saw couples in the church having children, one after another, but we could not. I perceived this as humiliation. I went to a Korean minister to ask for prayer. He told me, “God has a plan to use you in the future. You are going through the same trials as Hannah, Rachel, Rebecca, and Sarah went through in the Bible. God has a plan for you.” This was confirmed to me when God spoke to me in January 2016. He told me that I would have a child that year and that my ministry would be initiated by Him. He also promised me that he would use me greatly if I humbled myself before him.
Sometimes I discuss with my wife, if we could do it all again, whether we would choose to avoid the pain and humiliation or if we would choose the hard path. We agree that we would not have achieved the spiritual maturity we have today without experiencing those sufferings. Some people told us that God was not giving us children as a punishment. But it was actually God’s work in us to help us grow and become vessels that he could send.
This pattern of humiliation and preparation is visible across history and across cultures. And Zebulun is another reminder of this truth.
There are people and nations in our world today who are deeply despised. China is one of them.
As a Chinese person living in the United States, I sometimes feel that the Chinese people are among the most despised groups in the world. Some second-generation Chinese Americans even feel ashamed to acknowledge that they are Chinese. Koreans, and even people from Taiwan or Hong Kong, sometimes distance themselves from being identified as Chinese.
This attitude exists partly because China is a communist country, but also because of China’s history of defeat in wars against Western imperial powers and Japan. In the past, China took great pride in being the strongest power in the East. Over the past few hundred years, however, she has lost that sense of dignity and honor.
Is there a purpose behind this history of humiliation? I believe there is. God has revealed to me that He has a great plan for China. God allowed contempt and suffering to humble the nation, and through this humbling, He is preparing to build His church in China. God is preparing China for a great spiritual revival.
When this revival happens, God will send out millions of missionaries from China to Japan, Muslim countries, Israel, Europe, America, and many other parts of the world to help bring renewal and revival.
During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a Chinese believer named Ye prayed to God, asking whether the Chinese church had a future and why God allowed such severe persecution against it. God sent an angel to tell him that He had a wonderful plan for the Chinese church, which would unfold in three steps.
The first step was to dismantle the existing structures of the church. The second step was to rebuild. Then, when a new generation within the Chinese church was ready, God would pour out His Holy Spirit upon them, and revival would come to China. The third step would be to send Chinese Christians to preach the gospel in regions where it has lost momentum, especially in Europe and America.
God has a great plan for China, and China can be seen as a modern example of Zebulun. God has allowed, and continues to allow, persecution in China as part of this purpose.
Persecution has purified the church. Suffering has created resilience. God is raising a people who will go out with rejoicing, not from pride, but from humility.
Just as Galilee was once dismissed, God is again raising voices from unexpected places to call the nations back to worship.
Zebulun is not the tribe of kingship or prosperity.
It is the tribe of sending.
Rejoice in Your Going Out
Zebulun’s call still stands.
To those shaped by humiliation.
To those placed on the edge.
To those sent rather than celebrated.
Rejoice in your going out.
God’s dwelling place is still being built.
His gates are still being formed.
And His light still rises from unexpected shores.
Zebulun speaks gently but firmly to those who feel unseen. God often chooses the shoreline, not the center. The edge is where movement begins. The harbor is where God prepares people to go.
If your life has felt like “former contempt,” ask the Holy Spirit what He may be preparing through it. Humiliation is not disqualification. It is training.
Zebulun’s command is not merely to go, but to rejoice in going.
Joy is simply an agreement with God’s purpose.
