And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto forced labor.
All Commentaries on Genesis 49:15 Go To Genesis 49
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
“Issachar desired the good and rested in the midst of lots. And seeing the place of rest that it is good, and the land that it is rich, he bowed his shoulder to labor and became a husbandman.” Issachar is called “reward,” and therefore he represents Christ, who is our reward, because we buy him for ourselves for the hope of everlasting salvation, not with gold and silver but with faith and devotion …. He is the one who desired the good from the beginning and did not know how to desire what is evil. Of him also Isaiah says, “Before the child knows how to call his father or mother, he does not trust evil, choosing what is good.” He rested among the lots of the Old Testament and the New and in the midst of the prophets. And therefore he appeared in the middle between Moses and Elijah, to show us that he had rest through discourse with them, through whom many renounce their sins and believe in the living God, and that they themselves are witnesses of his resurrection and blessed repose. Accordingly, to call the nations to the grace of his resurrection—which is the rich and fertile land that bears everlasting fruits, fruits a hundredfold and sixtyfold—he bowed his shoulder to labor, bowed himself to the cross, to carry our sins. For that reason the prophet says, “whose government is on his shoulder.” This means, above the passion of his body is the power of his divinity, or it refers to the cross that towers above his body. Therefore he bowed his shoulder, applying himself to the plow, patient in the endurance of all insults, and so subject to affliction that he was wounded on account of our iniquities and weakened on account of our sins. “And he became a gardener,” for he knew how to sow his own land with good grain and to plant fruitful trees with deep roots.
