Reuben

the firstborn son of Jacob... the son of Leah... in the jewish culture, being the firstborn held a lot of weight.. this should have been the most prominent of Jacob's sons.. yet somehow.. as often we find through the bible, this does not turn out to be the case...

when Leah names him, her thoughts are "the Lord has seen my misery, surely my husband will love me now" because it was so important for a man to have a son to carry on his family lineage... so she thought this would make him love her... to give her value.. yet it does not... but she realizes that the Lord has seen her sorrow...

when Reuben was a young boy he brings his mother some mandrakes which were said to cause fertility.. which Leah sells to Rachel for a night with Jacob...

the next thing we hear is that Reuben has slept with Bilhah, his father's concubine.. who was Rachel's servant... this is a horrendous thing to do in jewish history.. to sleep with the same woman as your father has slept with.. it is a form of disrespect.. a form of belittling your father...

Reuben was the one that saved Joseph's life when the brothers plotted to kill him... Reuben's intention was to have Joseph thrown in a well then to go back and get him out afterwards without letting his brother's know he did this... it turned out though that Judah and the other brothers sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites without Reuben knowing it... he was distraught when he came back to save Joseph and he was gone...

later on.. when they take Benjamin to meet Joseph, although they do not know who Joseph is, Reuben tells his father that if Benjamin does not return.. then he can take Reuben's two sons...

Jacob says of Reuben... in his dying days when he is pronouncing the blessing on his family... “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength,the child of my vigorous youth.You are first in rank and first in power.
But you are as unruly as a flood, and you will be first no longer. For you went to bed with my wife; you defiled my marriage couch."

so Reuben lost his standing of firstborn because of having sinned against his father... but when Moses blesses the tribes of Israel later.. his blessing was... “Let Reuben live and not die, nor his people be few.”

so he was blessed or at least his descendants were.. by Moses later on...

I think that Reuben was a good man.. his downfall seemed to me to be jealousy or bitterness.. as it is with so many of us... Reuben may have seen his mother hurt by his father and Rachel for many years.. he surely saw the favoritism that his father bestowed upon the sons of Rachel... and these things caused him, and the other brothers too, to lash out in jealousy...

we have to be careful when we allow feelings to fester into bitterness.. we need to continually lay before God and give up our emotions of having been wronged... that is the only way to remain pure before God... we will all be wronged at some point in this life.. yet somehow we have to give these hurts to God and allow Him to do His will toward people.. for vengence is Mine says the Lord.. we do wrong when we try to go against those who wrong us...