Issachar

After Jacob's eighth son, Asher, was born, the latent antagonism between Laban's two daughters finally surfaced. Rachel's inability to bear children made her envious of her older sister and caused her to use her influence as Jacob's favourite wife to isolate Leah from him. The incident that triggered the showdown was seemingly quite trivial. One day during a wheat harvest Reuben, Jacob and Leah's first-born son, came in from the field with some mandrake plants that he had found. At that time these plants were thought to induce pregnancy when eaten. Rachel was present when Reuben brought in his find and she wanted them to remedy her infertility. For Leah this was the last straw. She pointed out rather forcibly to her younger sister that as well as having taken away her husband she also wanted to take the plants her son had found.

Rachel readily agreed to restore Leah's conjugal rights in exchange for the supposedly magical plants. The result was that Leah gave birth to her fifth and Jacob's ninth son and she named him Issachar, meaning a hire or a reward.

Nothing is recorded about Issachar until Jacob's final prophetic blessing. Issachar's descendants were to:

• be "... a strong ass couching down between two burdens";

• understand that stability was beneficial;

• see that the land was good; and

• become a servant and pay tribute.

The heraldic symbol which resulted from this blessing was a laden donkey.

Issachar was allotted a parcel of fertile land south of the Sea of Galilee with the Jordan River as its eastern boundary. Following Joshua's death Israel repeatedly turned to idolatry and inevitably became subject to nearby nations or remnants of those remaining in Canaan. In one such time of subjugation, lasting twenty years, the Canaanites who still occupied parts of Asher's and Zebulun's inheritances over-ran and ruthlessly exploited Israel.

When the people came to their senses and repented before God, it was men from the tribes of Zebulun, Asher, and Issachar who, under the Lord's hand, completely crushed the larger and better equipped invading army, and thereby gave Israel forty years of peace.

At the time when David became king over Israel the men of Issachar had a reputation for valour and their leaders clearly understood that the nation's best interest was to accept this new dynasty.

Eventually Issachar was defeated, captured and, with the rest of Israel, was ejected from Canaan by the Assyrians. They were to be among those descendants of the twelve tribes who migrated through western Europe to the British Isles.

Although Issachar's tribal coat of arms is not obvious in western Europe nor the British Isles, Issachar's descendants would be "solid citizens" who would appreciate what they had and go quietly about enjoying it even in difficult times as Jacob's prophetic blessing indicated. God's unconditional promise to King David was that in the fullness of time He would plant Israel (including Issachar) in a new home - the British Isles - and the seed of David would rule over them for ever.