Word Live: Variations On A Theme
Receive again the Father’s blessing. You could use the words of Psalm 103:8–13 to re-orientate yourself in the good purposes of God.
Bible passage
Genesis 48:1–22
Manasseh and Ephraim
48 Some time later Joseph was told, ‘Your father is ill.’ So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. 2 When Jacob was told, ‘Your son Joseph has come to you,’ Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, ‘God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me 4 and said to me, “I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.”
5 ‘Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. 6 Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. 7 As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath’ (that is, Bethlehem).
8 When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, ‘Who are these?’
9 ‘They are the sons God has given me here,’ Joseph said to his father.
Then Israel said, ‘Bring them to me so that I may bless them.’
10 Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.
11 Israel said to Joseph, ‘I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.’
12 Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. 13 And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right towards Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left towards Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him. 14 But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,
‘May the God before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,
the God who has been my shepherd
all my life to this day,
16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
– may he bless these boys.
May they be called by my name
and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly
on the earth.’
17 When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 Joseph said to him, ‘No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.’
19 But his father refused and said, ‘I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.’ 20 He blessed them that day and said,
‘In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing:
“May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.”’
So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.
21 Then Israel said to Joseph, ‘I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers. 22 And to you I give one more ridge of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.’
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
On Friday nights, religious Jewish parents still bless their sons saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh’ (v 20). These two sons of Joseph received a special blessing at the hands of their grandfather Jacob. He blessed them as if they were his own sons and made them tribes of Israel in their own right. Eventually kings of Israel would come from the tribe of Ephraim (see 1 Kings 11:26–40).
This scene is reminiscent of Genesis 27. Through deception, Jacob had received the firstborn’s blessing from his father Isaac. Now, he deceives his son Joseph and gives the firstborn’s blessing to the younger of his two grandsons. Joseph is outraged at this impropriety. However, he himself is a younger son who receives twice the blessing of his brothers (v 22).
In Romans chapter 9, the apostle Paul takes up this theme as he argues for the sovereign right of God to act like a potter and make of a piece of clay whatever he decides (Romans 9:21). God’s purposes supersede human hierarchies. Ultimately, our identity, purpose and use are determined not by our history but by God’s choice and our response to Jesus (John 1:12,13).
Respond
Use verses 15 and 16 to pray for God’s blessing on young people you know, and on members of your own family.
Deeper Bible study
‘All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw and welcomed them from a distance’.1
It’s curious that the example of faith Hebrews 11:21 highlights about Jacob is that ‘when he was dying, [he] blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshipped.’ Why? There are two things going on in today’s reading. First, Jacob adopts Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons born to Joseph before Jacob arrived in Egypt (v 5). Joseph doesn’t seem to object. Around 20 years old at the time, they’d grown up in Egypt and been immersed in the privileged culture of the Egyptian establishment. If they were to be the bearers of God’s promise they had to be detached from that environment and learn that they were Hebrews. Joseph may have tried to educate them about their true heritage, but the dominant culture and peer-group pressure would win the contest against backward Hebrew culture every time. Now they would be re-educated in new customs, a new language and, above all, to worship the one God of their fathers.
Second, Jacob blesses them, but not in the accepted way (vs 10–20). He reverses his hands as he does so, so the younger, Ephraim, receives the blessing of the firstborn. Joseph tries to correct his father (the word ‘displeased’ in verse 17 is an unnecessarily negative translation). Here was history repeating itself. Both are to be richly blessed, but subsequent history shows that Ephraim becomes the more numerous tribe and is usually mentioned first. God is reminding his people that he does not work on the basis of entitlement or rights but that his promise is always one of grace.2
Both acts have the single purpose of advancing God’s promise to Jacob, recalled in verses 3 and 4.
Jacob speaks a lot about God in this passage. How does he describe him? How does he testify to God’s work, past, present and future?
