Genesis chapter 48. Remember,
we started the story of Jacob in Genesis chapter 37. Genesis
37, one says, Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father
was a stranger in the land of Canaan. This is the history of
Jacob. And much of that history concerned
Joseph and the various forms of ill treatment that he received,
but then his exaltation to second in command in the nation of Egypt. We've covered the material where
the brothers went to fetch corn from Egypt. We went through the
various details. The family has come together.
Jacob is now living in Egypt. According to chapter 47, he has
been in the land of Egypt for 17 years. And so these last few
chapters, 48, 49, and 50, deals with the last days specifically
of Jacob and Joseph. The blessing of Joseph's sons
is what we find here in chapter 48, the blessing of Jacob's sons
in chapter 49, Jacob, then, is dead and embalmed and mourned
in the beginning of chapter 50. He's buried, and then Joseph
reassures his brothers, and then Joseph dies, or it's his last
words and deeds that the book ends on. So that's kind of the
final section that we'll be covering in these next few weeks, and
then on to the book of Exodus. Tonight, as I said, we're looking
at Genesis 48, the blessing of Joseph's sons, and I'll pick
up reading in 48, verse 1. Now it came to pass after these
things that Joseph was told, indeed your father is sick. And
he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And Jacob
was told, look, your son Joseph is coming to you. And Israel
strengthened himself and sat up on the bed. Then Jacob said
to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz, in the land of
Canaan, and blessed me, and said to me, Behold, I will make you
fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude
of people, and give this land to your descendants after you
as an everlasting possession. And now your two sons, Ephraim
and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before
I came to you in Egypt, are mine. As Reuben and Simeon, they shall
be mine. Your offspring, whom you beget
after them, shall be yours. They will be called by the name
of their brothers in their inheritance. But as for me, when I came from
Paddan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the
way, when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath. And
I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. Then Israel saw Joseph's sons
and said, Who are these? Joseph said to his father, They
are my sons, whom God has given me in this place. And he said,
Please bring them to me, and I will bless them. Now the eyes
of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. Then
Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced
them. And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your
face, but in fact God has also shown me your offspring. So Joseph
brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with
his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim
with his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh with
his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them
near him. Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it
on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on
Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh
was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph and said,
God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who
has fed me all my life long to this day. The angel who has redeemed
me from all evil, bless the lads. Let my name be upon them, and
the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow
into a multitude in the midst of the earth. Now when Joseph
saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim,
it displeased him. So he took hold of his father's
hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And
Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this one is
the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.
But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also
shall become a people, and he also shall be great, but truly
his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants
shall become a multitude of nations. So he blessed them that day,
saying, By you Israel will bless, saying, May God make you as Ephraim
and as Manasseh. And thus he said Ephraim before
Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold,
I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the
land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to you
one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of
the Amorite with my sword and my bow. Amen. Well, as I said,
this is the final chapters, the final days of Jacob and Joseph. These two sons of Joseph are
given a blessing. by their grandfather Jacob. And
I want to look first at the adoption of Joseph's sons, for that's
essentially what Jacob is doing. He says, they shall be mine,
just like Reuben and Simeon. So the grandfather is adopting
these sons, not so that he can take them to the park and engage
in ball and sports and those sorts of things, but rather so
that they could be tribal heads. They are those who inherit allotments
of land. We see that on the map with reference
to Israel, Ephraim, and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph, which
shows a double portion for Joseph. and indicates that the promise
of God concerning his exaltation, even above his brothers, does
come to pass in the narrative. So the adoption of Joseph's sons
in verses 1 to 7, and then the blessing of Joseph's sons in
verses 8 to 22. But let's look first at verses
1 to 7, the visit with Jacob. So essentially, Jacob is sick,
and Joseph knows this, so Joseph wants to go and visit him. And
remember that Joseph is the second in charge in Egypt, but he wants
to go and be with his father. He wants to essentially be with
his people. All the kingdoms of the earth
do not ultimately matter to Joseph. What matters are his people.
What matters is his father. What matters is his church, ultimately. So we have the impending death
of his father, it's already been announced in chapter 47 at verses
27 to 31. Joseph, or Jacob rather, knows
that he's going to die and he makes Joseph swear to him that
Joseph will not bury him in the land of Egypt. Now, in terms
of the importance of the visit, Robert Alter says Joseph, even
before he receives any word from his father in this regard, anticipates
that Jacob will confer some sort of special eminence on his own
two sons in a deathbed blessing, and so he brings them with him.
So that's a very common sort of practice, a deathbed blessing,
and that's essentially what chapter 49 is, except instead of his
grandsons, Jacob will be blessing his sons specifically. Calvin
says, certainly the reason why Joseph was so desirous of seeing
his father and so prompt to discharge all the other duties of filial
piety was that he regarded it as a greater privilege to be
a son to Jacob than to preside over a hundred kingdoms. It's
a blessed reality that Joseph has not forgotten about his family. and the family that treated him
very poorly as a matter of fact, but nevertheless he wants to
be with the people of God, he wants to be with his father Jacob,
and he wants to receive the blessing that Jacob has for his sons Ephraim
and Manasseh. Now Ephraim and Manasseh are
about 20 at this particular time. Again, Jacob has been in Egypt
for about 17 years. The boys were born in the time
of the famine, so probably about 20 years of age. Now with reference
to the adoption of the sons, we see that in verses 3 to 7. Again, one of the commentators
says this was pretty common in the ancient Near East where a
grandfather would do this again with reference to heir, with
reference to inheritance, with reference to passing on specific
tangible blessings. So he's not adopting them, so
he can grow his own family. He's adopting them to multiply
within the nation of Israel, descendants seed and land. So
when he speaks to Joseph and he speaks to the sons, he rehearses
God's blessings. He rehearses God's faithfulness.
He speaks of the promises of God and how God did in fact fulfill
those things. If you look at verse three, it
says, then Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at
Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, Behold,
I will make you fruitful and multiply you and I will make
of you a multitude of people and give this land to your descendants
after you as an everlasting possession. Now, God appeared to Jacob twice
at Bethel. That's what was formerly called
Luz. He appears to him in Genesis
chapter 28, and then again in Genesis chapter 35. In Genesis
chapter 28, he has that vision of the ladder and the angels
ascending and descending. And back then, we noted that
it represents both the providence of God and the Messiah of God. But that promise concerning land
and concerning seed is there in chapter 28. The same thing
obtains in chapter 35. He reiterates the promise to
Jacob concerning land and concerning seed, specifically in chapter
35 verses 13 and 14. So what Jacob does is highlight
God's faithfulness and God's promise keeping to encourage
Joseph and to encourage the boys that he's going to bless that
their God is in fact faithful and the things that he's promised
in terms of the land of Canaan and in terms of a great seed
will in fact come to pass. Remember initially that promise
of land and seed is given to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12.
It is then through Isaac and now here to Jacob and it's being
passed on to the nation of Israel as a whole. So God's past faithfulness
is a great encouragement for our present faithfulness. When God keeps promises, It encourages
the people of God to walk by faith and understand and know
that what He has said in terms of good gifts, He will in fact
accomplish in the lives of His people. Now notice in terms of
the adoption of the sons. And Jacob rather specifically
addresses them as Ephraim and Manasseh. Now there's a lot riding
on this whole situation in this particular chapter. Manasseh
is the firstborn and Ephraim is the secondborn. As a result,
Manasseh is entitled to the firstborn privileges and firstborn rights
and the better blessing. But Jacob specifically reverses
that as we move through the particular narrative, and already the way
he addresses the sons sort of foreshadows that in verse 5.
They've already been introduced in the chapter at verse 1. as
Manasseh and Ephraim in terms of their birth order, but here
in verse five, and now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who
were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you
in Egypt, are mine. As Reuben and Simeon, they shall
be mine. So again, it's an adoption ceremony,
and I think that helps us understand when we drop down to verse eight,
when Israel saw Joseph's sons and said, who are these? There's
a reason why he asks who are these. First, verse 10, he can't
see that well, but as well it could be the initiation of a
formal adoption ceremony and those sorts of things would have
needed to be properly identified and there was a protocol and
a process to follow. But with reference to Ephraim
and Manasseh, notice the text, he says, they will be mine. In
the same manner, Reuben and Simeon were his. Remember, Reuben and
Simeon were the first two of his 12 sons. They were his natural-born
sons, and yet he wants these two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh,
to be like his own sons. Wenham explains it this way,
this act of adoption does not simply make Ephraim and Manasseh
Jacob's heirs, but makes them the ancestors of tribes on a
par with those tracing their origin back to Jacob's own sons,
such as Judah and Benjamin. And then Klein highlights how
this does show the superior blessing ultimately upon Joseph. When
the blessing comes in verse 15, it says, and he blessed Joseph. The sons receive it, but in the
sons, it's ultimately Joseph that is receiving this double
portion. It's Joseph that is being elevated
in the midst of this. When you look at tribal allotments
in Israel later at the conquest in Joshua, you will not see a
particular tribe. Or if you look on the map, you
won't see the tribe of Joseph. Rather, you will see the tribes
of Ephraim and Manasseh. That's a double portion for Joseph,
and it is consistent with the promise of God through the dreams
to Joseph in Genesis 37 of his supremacy and of his exaltation. So Klein says, This was a declaration
of intent to adopt the two grandsons, thus elevating them both to the
status of tribal heads and thereby giving Joseph, according to his
dreams, the position of firstborn with a double representation
among the tribes of Israel. Now this just isn't Bible commentators,
this is 1 Chronicles 5.1 that says, "...Now the sons of Reuben
the firstborn of Israel, he was indeed the firstborn, but because
he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the
sons of Joseph, the son of Israel. So that's the significance of
this adoption ceremony. Yes, it is to convey great blessing
upon Ephraim and Manasseh, but ultimately upon Joseph, the way
that God revealed that it would come to pass. The other sons
of Joseph would be called by the name of their brothers in
terms of inheritance. That's what he says in verse
6. Your offspring, meaning other sons besides Ephraim, and Manasseh
were not told if they are, who they are, or if they will be,
but simply stated by Jacob, your offspring whom you beget after
them shall be yours, they will be called by the name of their
brothers in their inheritance. In other words, they will not
be tribal heads, only Ephraim and Manasseh will receive that
particular privilege. So that's the significance of
the adoption in this particular instance. And this recalls Genesis
chapter 35. He's already rehearsed this.
The promises of God revealed to him at Bethel in chapters
28 and 35. Well, 35 is also the chapter
in which Rachel died. So as he is thinking through
this, as he is contemplating this, certainly his love for
Rachel shines forth. in his reminiscence here in verse
7. But as for me, when I came from
Paddan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the
way, when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, and
I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. Remember that he loved her supreme. He had a great affection for
her. She really was his soulmate,
and certainly Joseph was her son. And so there is that intimate
connection and that closeness and that love. So that's the
adoption of the sons. Let's move on to the blessing
of Joseph's sons in verses 8 to 22. Again, he asks the question,
verse 8, the formal introduction is made in verse 9, they are
my sons whom God has given me. in this place, meaning in Egypt.
So these two sons hadn't been to the land of Canaan. They're
ultimately going to inherit tribal allotments in the land of Canaan.
They're going to be true red-blooded Israelites living in the land
of Canaan. But in this instance, he says,
please bring them to me and I will bless them. Now, with reference
to the blessing, this isn't just sort of a wish. It's not just
sort of a, boy, this is what patriarchs do when they pass
from this life. It's more prophetic in nature. Very often when the patriarchs
bless, it's a prophecy concerning things that will affect or things
that will happen within the nation of the covenant people of Israel.
So, it's not in a common way, but in a prophetical way, as
John Gill points out. And then, of course, there is
that affection expressed by him to them. But with reference to
verse 10, the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he
could not see. Then Joseph brought them near
him, and he kissed them and embraced them. Verse 11 really underscores
the goodness and the kindness of God. It's kind of one of those
Ephesians 3.20 moments, but in an Old Testament context. Genesis
48.11, he says to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face,
but in fact God has also shown me your offspring. So God, in
His goodness and in His kindness, not only lets me see you, but
He also lets me see your offspring. Remember, they reported to Jacob
that wild beasts had destroyed Joseph. They brought that multicolored
tunic covered with blood to Jacob to sort of prove it. And then
later on in the narrative, we see on a couple of occasions
that Jacob thinks that Joseph is dead. Now, not only is he
seeing Joseph, but he's also seeing his grandsons, and he
gets the great blessing of being able to pass on a blessing to
these two boys. Remember Ephesians 3.20, he's
able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. So this is an Ephesians 3.20
moment in the life and experience of Jacob. Now the sons are brought
to Jacob, verse 12 indicates the reverence of Joseph. He brought
them from beside his knees and he bowed down with his face to
the earth. Now Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right
hand toward Israel's left hand and Manasseh with his left hand
toward Israel's right hand and brought them near him. That makes
perfectly good sense. If it sounds a bit confusing,
it makes perfectly good sense if you just think about it for
a moment. So he's got Joseph. I'm going to botch it up as I
try to explain it now. Joseph wants to present Ephraim
so that Jacob lays his left hand on him. He wants to present Manasseh
so Jacob lays his right hand on him. Because as I said, Manasseh,
as the elder brother, receives a double portion of the blessing. He receives the firstborn entitlement. And so the right hand is the
position of honor. It's the position of prestige.
Christ is seated at the right hand of God Most High. So it's
always had that significance of being a place of preeminence,
a place of honor. So Joseph wants to make sure
that Manasseh's at the right hand of Jacob when it comes time
to bless. But essentially what Jacob does
is he crosses his hands. And so he puts his left hand
on Manasseh and he puts his right hand on Ephraim. And that's the
significance here in verse 14. Then Israel stretched out his
right hand, that's of course Jacob, and laid it on Ephraim's
head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head,
guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. Gil explains it, that he was
under a divine impulse and spirit of prophecy. So it is the case
that though he was dim in terms of his eyes, he wasn't able to
see, when these two young men are presented before him, he
knows enough to put the right hand on the one to whom it is
due, specifically Ephraim, and then he puts his left hand on
the one to whom it is specifically due, Manasseh. Now, if you have
been paying attention to the book of Genesis, you will know
that this is one of the overarching themes in the book. I mean, not
a theological theme, but it's certainly a literary pattern.
It's certainly symptomatic of the way that God blesses. It's
typically the younger son that gets more blessing than does
the older son. Again, Wenham describes it this
way. He was deliberately giving precedence
to the younger son, something that has happened a number of
times already in Genesis. Cain and Abel, Perez and Zerah,
and most obviously, Jacob and Esau. But whereas in the last
case the blind Isaac was tricked into blessing his younger son,
this time the blind Jacob deliberately chooses to bless the younger
Ephraim. So there's a lot of connection
between what is in the later chapters of Genesis to what is
in the previous chapters of Genesis. For those who are interested
in those links, I would really encourage you to get Gordon Wenham's
commentary on the book of Genesis. I mean, he makes those links,
he shows you the connections, and they are riddled, littered
throughout the entire book. We don't have the time, I don't
have the competence to bring all of that in the space of a
Bible study, but it's certainly encouraging to see the literary
masterpiece that is the book of Genesis and the way that it
connects to itself. But then also with reference
to this pattern of the younger son receiving greater blessing,
Klein again says repeatedly, the last became first. Both Jacob
and Joseph were examples, attesting that the covenant blessings are
not secured by the course of nature, but as sovereign gifts
of God. So it's not just formulaic that
the older is always going to get the blessed. What we find
in the book of Genesis with reference to the younger son, more often
than not, being blessed more so, it shows, as Klein points
out, it's according to the sovereign purposes of God. It's His plan,
it's His mind, it's His decree, and He is able to dispense with
His good graces to whomever He chooses. It's not based on age,
it's not based on position, it's not based on what men think.
Remember with King David of Israel, David wasn't in line to be the
king. He was the youngest of all the
brothers. What's the lesson in 1 Samuel
chapter 16? God looks upon the heart. He
doesn't look at men externally or outwardly in terms of this
one's larger and this one's more fit and this one's more savvy.
No, God looks at the heart. He knows that David is a man
after his own heart, so it's the youngest of the sons of Jesse
that goes on to be Israel's greatest king, save our Lord Jesus Christ. And then with reference to the
actual blessing, again, verse 15, he blessed Joseph. The specifics
are with reference to Ephraim and Manasseh. but the acknowledgment
of God's faithfulness in the first part of verse 15. God before
whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked. The Lord God most high
manifested himself to Abraham and started that relationship.
And ever since Abraham, there was never a time when God abandoned
his people. There was never a time when God
left them nor forsook them. There was never a time that God
made promises and didn't follow through. So as sort of a preamble
to the blessing, he underscores or highlights something concerning
the blesser. In other words, the one who is
giving these good gifts is one that you can count on, is one
that is in fact most faithful. He says, God before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked, and then he says, the God who has
fed me all my life long to this day. I'm not certain that you
and I on our deathbeds will make that sort of a testimony to the
goodness of God, probably because food is so readily available
to us. Remember, he's been in the land
of Egypt for 17 years, but what brought him to the land of Egypt
initially? It was a severe famine in the
entirety of the land. Remember, it was a seven-year
period where there was destitution and decimation for all those
regions outside of Egypt. It created a situation where
persons had to flee to Egypt in order to secure food so that
they could live. So when it comes time for Jacob
to die, this is a chief blessing that he ascribes to the God of
heaven and earth, the God who has fed me all my life long to
this day. And I think one of the temptations
for us, as a people that have Costco's and super stores and
Wal-Mart's and whatever other store is out there, and aisles
full of one product but 50 different types of it, It's to forget that
God is responsible for our daily bread. It is to forget that God
is the one who provides the food ultimately on those shelves at
Costco. And so we need to remember that
and understand that that is a good thing to thank God for. It made
it into our Lord's prayer. that he teaches to us that we
are to ask God to give us this day our daily bread. After reading
Naftali's letter there concerning Kenya, I think we can understand
not everybody in this world has it quite as good as we do. We're
not looking at a locust infestation, we're not looking at the sorts
of turmoil and difficulty and trouble that they're facing in
their particular region. Nevertheless, God does feed us
each and every day, whether it comes through an intermediary
or through whether we go out and grow it in our own garden.
But this is an acknowledgment of God's faithfulness. But then
notice in verse 16, at the very beginning, He acknowledges God's
redeeming activity. It's a beautiful statement. Not
only does God take care of the outer man, but God takes care
of the inner man. And initially with Jacob, Jacob
is an interesting study in scripture, and up until chapter 28, he's
not the most sympathetic character. Chapter 28, he meets God at Bethel
for the first time, and it's there it seems as if a change
has come over him, likely he was converted for real, but he
is a faithful man, he is a godly man, And he has walked with his
Lord. He's got a bit of the downer
in him, a bit of a melodramatic sort of overreaction at times
along the way in the narrative. But he's a faithful and a godly
man. But notice he moves from God's act of creation and sustenance
in terms of creation to redemption. The angel who has redeemed me
from all evil. Again, this is a good way to
rehearse the blessings of our God. He not only takes care of
us outwardly, He not only makes sure that we can have food, He
not only makes sure that we have rain or sun or whatever we need
to grow that food, but He also takes care of redeeming us from
all evil. Now the angel there, most of
the older commentators, even the new ones, will say that this
is the Christ, the Lord Jesus, the second person of the Trinity,
sort of a pre-incarnate theophany or Christophany, a manifestation
of God to man. There's those times where you
see an angel of the Lord. Typically, this is an easy way
to sort of at least get in the ballpark in terms of these angel
of the Lord passages. If there's what's called an indefinite
article, an or a, with reference to the angel, then that means
it's probably just a disembodied spirit that God created to do
His bidding and serve Him. If there is what's called a definite
article or the article The, then it highlights the angel of the
Lord. Typically the New King James
will capitalize that so that we are understanding that it
is a Theophany or Christophany. prior to the incarnation manifestation,
most likely of the second person of the triune God. So that's
why it is capitalized in this particular instance. There are
other times where it may be capitalized, or it may not be capitalized,
and it should be or should not be. It's sort of an interpretative
call. When translators do that, they're
helping you interpret. Now, if their interpretation
is right, which it most likely is here, that's good. When their
interpretation is wrong, that's not good. So be mindful of that. Red letters in your Bible, words
that are supplied in your Bible, those are interpretative calls
that translators make, and for the most part, we have good confidence
that they're usually on the right track, but not always so. So
don't just assume, and don't just automatically accept that.
There may be contexts, for instance, where deity is capitalized, the
New King James does that as well, capitalizes personal pronouns
with reference to deity. And again, that can be helpful,
but it can also be misleading. I think there's a couple places
where we have capitalization or not, where it should be the
other way around. So it's a good, helpful tool,
but do not think that it is infallible. Translators can be wrong, and
interpreters can be wrong as well. But in this instance, it
seems to be good. He praises God for sustenance
in terms of his food, but he praises God who has redeemed
me from all evil. certainly the various afflictions
that would face a Jacob living in Canaan and then Egypt in terms
of external threat, but we ought not to minimize the evil of sin. Jacob understands what it is
to walk with a holy God. Jacob understands what it is
to be commanded by a holy God. He knows the existence of evil.
He knows what wickedness is. He knows what vileness is. And
he says that the Lord has redeemed me from all evil. And just by
way of a practical observation, brethren, when you and I come
to die, if we have some time to rehearse God's blessings,
we can't do a whole lot better than this. He has sustained us
externally, He has fed us, He has clothed us, He has given
us water, He has protected us, and He has redeemed us from all
evil. What a great testimony that is
for persons when they come to die, that the Lord Most High
has, in fact, redeemed us from all evil. A great thing for us
to be able to pass on to those who may attend us at our death
and at our passing. What a great thing we're able
to point our children and our grandchildren, if God willing,
great-great-grandchildren, point them to a faithful God who not
only looks after the outer man, but He looks after the inner
man, and He redeems His people from all evil. Great preamble
with reference to the blessing that is to come. And then the
simplicity of it. And it rehearses, or rather reflects,
the previous promises of God touching on multitude, touching
on seed. We know that Christ is the seed,
singular, according to Galatians 3.16. But in Him, all the elect
of God is the seed. So when God says to Abraham,
look at the stars, you can't count that. They're more numerous
than you can count. Look at the sand on the seashore. It's too numerous for you to
count. Your descendants will be even more so. That looks beyond
the physical descendants of Abraham in their earthly tenure in the
land of Canaan. It looks to the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It looks to the elect of Christ.
It looks to those of us who, by grace, are saved. Those who
believe the gospel and those who are heaven-bound. That's
what the seed, that's what the multitude is pointing forward
to in terms of the book of Genesis. That's why the book is so important. Land, to be sure, but we see
that even universalized or extended in its new covenant setting. In Romans chapter 4, we learn
that when Abraham was told in Genesis 13, to look to the north,
look to the south, look to the east, look to the west. God says,
all this I am giving you. Abraham looked far beyond Canaan. According to Romans 4.13, he
would inherit the world. That's why the second Psalm,
Jesus says, talking about his father's words to him, ask of
me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost
parts of the earth for your possession. This is why Christ in the Great
Commission says, go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations. So you have that Matthew 28,
18 promise, go make disciples of all the nations, that connects
us back to the Abrahamic promise, God telling Abraham, that in
him all the families, all the nations of the earth would be
blessed. Genesis makes sense for us of
the cosmic implications of God's redemptive plan that we meet
with in the New Testament documents. It's glorious. So bless the lads. And then he says, let my name
be named upon them. Calvin says, for he puts his
name upon them that they may obtain a place among the patriarchs. Remember, he's adopted them now.
They will receive tribal allotments. There will be the tribe of Ephraim. There will be the tribe of Manasseh. In fact, half of Manasseh is
on one side of the Jordan. The other half of Manasseh is
on the other side of the Jordan. You had three Transjordan tribes. You had East Manasseh, you had
Gad, and you had Reuben, that those all were on the other side
of the Jordan. But in terms of this particular
promise, he says, let my name be named upon them. They will
join the ranks of the other patriarchs in the name of my fathers, Abraham
and Isaac. And here it is. And let them
grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. So again,
It's a promise, to be sure, it's a blessing, but it's a prophecy. And this prophecy comes home
with great power over and over again in the book of Genesis.
We're going to see more, specifically connected to Judah, the Shiloh
prophecy in Genesis chapter 49, that kingly tribe from whence
Messiah will come. So those who say, well, you know,
I don't really need Genesis to help me with the rest of the
Bible, you absolutely positively do. Genesis is a great and foundational
book, not only for the whole Bible, but in terms of the redemptive
plan of God in terms of Christ being the Israel of God and fulfilling
all that Old Covenant Israel failed to execute and failed
to carry out. You need to appreciate that with
reference to the gospel records. Matthew connects Jesus to Israel. Jesus does what Israel failed
to do. You've heard that theology of
the first Adam and a second Adam. It's better to consider a first
Adam and a last Adam, because Israel was an Adam-like figure
as well. They were put into a particular
situation, they were given probationary covenants, they were told to
toe a line in a particular way, and of course they come up short.
When we get to the book of Matthew, it's Jesus looking just like
Israel. He passes through the waters
of baptism, the Holy Spirit comes upon him, and then he is driven
out into the wilderness. That is precisely the pattern
of Israel, coming through the waters of the Red Sea and then
going out into the wilderness, and there being tempted by God,
or tested rather, by God, and failing. But Christ passes through
the waters, goes into the wilderness, and fulfills completely and perfectly
all that was laid upon not only Israel, but also Adam. And I
think that Luke connects Jesus to Adam even more conspicuously
in his genealogy. So that's some theology that
connects what we find here, what seems to be a bit obscure, an
old time promise to two sons made by an old patriarch, but
it's programmatic for the nation of Israel and for the nation
of Israel in its new covenant setting in terms of the redemptive
benefits of Jesus Christ. So there is a spiritual thrust
here in the promise to Ephraim and to Manasseh, but ultimately
to Joseph. And then notice, the sons are
distinguished in verses 17 to 22 by Jacob. Joseph is displeased
with what he sees, okay? He had it all set up, he prepared
the sons so that all they had to do was take a step forward
and then Jacob would have put his right hand on Manasseh and
his left hand on Ephraim. But then Jacob crosses his hands
and does it just the opposite. So, of course, Joseph is a bit
irritated by this. He is displeased by this, and
he expresses as much in verse 17. When Joseph saw that his
father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased
him. So he took hold of his father's
hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And
Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this one is
the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.
But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also
shall become a people, and he also shall be great, but truly
his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants
shall become a multitude of nations. So it's not the case that Manasseh
is cut off. It's not the case that Manasseh
is sent off to work at a shoe factory. Manasseh receives a
tribal allotment as well, but Ephraim will be more preeminent. That's where the focus lays.
It's on the preeminence of Ephraim among the tribes of Israel. And
if you read your Bibles in the Old Testament, at times the entirety
of Israel is oftentimes referred to as Ephraim. Matthew Poole
highlights the preeminence of Ephraim. He says, so the tribe
of Ephraim was both in number in terms of more people and in
terms of greater and even more preeminent. So not only in number,
but in power and privileges. For that tribe was the seat first
of the tabernacle and afterwards of the kingdom. Whence the name
Ephraim is sometimes put for all the ten tribes, and sometimes
for Joseph himself, which Manasseh never was. So it's not a matter
of Manasseh cut off and Ephraim alone. No, both the sons of Joseph
receive a blessing and a tribal allotment. It's just the case
that Ephraim the younger is going to be more blessed. He is more
preeminent. There is more eminence that he
will possess in terms of a tribal portion in the nation of Israel. And then again he blesses him
in verse 20, so he blessed them that day, saying, By you Israel
will bless, saying, May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And thus he set Ephraim before
Manasseh. Now the chapter ends or concludes
with Jacob once again highlighting the reality that he's going to
die. Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold,
I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the
land of your father. So that is a blessed encouragement
with reference to the nation. So 17 years now, Jacob and his
family. have been in the land of Egypt.
That's a long time to be out of the land of promise. That's
a long time to be away from home. And here, Jacob affirms or assures
Joseph that in fact, Joseph and Israel, if not Joseph physically,
or in terms of his life, at least his descendants will be back
in the land of promise. Now, verse 22 is a difficult
verse. The best I can do is that it
refers to the place called Shechem. Shechem means shoulder, and that's
what the marginal reading is with reference to Portia. And
most commentators believe that's what he is highlighting, though
it's a difficult interpretation because he did not secure or
did not gain Shechem by his sword and his bow with reference to
taking it from the hand of the Amorite. So it's a notoriously
difficult verse. I can't do justice to it in this
particular context, but just suffice to say that the bulk
of interpretation sees it as being Shechem, being the portion
given to Joseph to the descendants. We see that confirmed in Joshua
chapter 24 at verse 32, and then again you'll see it in John chapter
4 at verse 5. So Shechem was given by Jacob
to Joseph, and that's the gist there of verse 22. Well, in conclusion,
in terms of some lessons that I hope we can learn from this
section, one of the lessons we have visited often as we move
through this book is the providence of God. It's the providence of
God that, under the wickedness of Joseph's brothers, brought
Joseph to Egypt. It was the providence of God
that saw Joseph exalted in that land. It was the providence of
God that brought Jacob to that land. It was the providence of
God that would ultimately bring the descendants of Israel back
to the land of Canaan. His appearance to Jacob at Bethel,
where he prescribes to him or tells him the various promises
that he's making, the promises of God to Jacob at Bethel in
terms of seed and land, Those things are carried along by His
providence, by His eternal decree. And then the fulfillment of these
promises herein the sons of Jacob, that He's able to confer this
upon these men that subsequent history reveals become tribal
heads and have their own lands. And when you look at the map
in the back of your Bible, you will see Manasseh and you will
see Ephraim. This is God's providence that
brought that to pass. Secondly, I think conspicuously
in this chapter is, I think Isaac's probably smiling at this particular
moment, the goodness of God. The goodness of God. That verse
11 is glorious. I mean, I don't know that we
can really enter in, but he says, I never thought I would see you
again. let alone you and your fine young lads that I'm about
to convey a blessing upon. God is good to his people. The
fathers enjoyed communion with them. Look at verse 15 in that
sort of preamble to the blessing. God, before whom my fathers Abraham
and Isaac walked, That's a term of intimacy, a term of communion,
a term that underscores the presence of God. It's our relationship
with God. We walk by faith to be sure.
But that faith isn't nebulous. That faith isn't undefined. That
faith is rooted in Genesis 2 Revelation. And God promises His presence
with His people. God the Lord is with us when
we walk before Him. As well, the patriarchs were
sustained by Him. 15b, the God who has fed me all
my life long to this day. Jesus teaching to us, give us
this day, our daily bread, is most consistent with the people
of God. They understand that the Lord
is sovereign over all things and that it is Him that gives
good gifts to His children. And then, of course, the redemption
of the patriarch by the angel of the Lord. And if that does
highlight or point to the second person of the Trinity, it is
certainly glorious in terms of foreshadowing the blessed redemption
that is to come. And then one final observation
that's kind of a New Testament observation, and one that you
might meet with if you ever talk to Jehovah's Witnesses. In Colossians
1.15, Paul tells us that Jesus is the firstborn over creation. And of course, the witnesses
want to say, well, that means that Jesus is a creature. We'd
all affirm Jesus is creature, according to his humanity, but
that's not what they're affirming. They are Arians, and Arius taught
that there was a time when Christ was not. Arius taught that Jesus
was a creature. And so the witnesses seize upon
that term, firstborn, and they say, that settles it. He's the
firstborn. Well, it's very intriguing that
in this particular passage, and it's conspicuously highlighted,
that Manasseh was the firstborn. Verse 14. Can't miss it. You
look at the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 31, verse 9, he tells
us Ephraim is the firstborn. Now, which is it? Moses or Jeremiah? Is it Manasseh who's the firstborn?
Or is it Ephraim that's the firstborn? Both. The word firstborn means
the first one to come out of the womb. But the word also means
the one who receives the benefits and blessings that the firstborn
would have. In other words, it underscores
preeminence. When you look at this particular
chapter, Ephraim is preeminent above the other. And it's the
same with reference to Christ. The text in Colossians 1 is not
telling us that Jesus is a creature. The text in Colossians is telling
us that Jesus is preeminent. It's telling us the exact opposite
of what the witnesses affirm in their theology. They say Jesus
is a creature. They say Jesus may be preeminent,
but among creatures, but that's not Paul's point. Likely, creation
there means new creation, the glorious new covenant era that
Christ is mediator and king over. So when the Bible says something
concerning firstborn, it doesn't necessarily mean the first one
that passed through the womb. You take Israel, Exodus 4, verse
22. God calls Israel, my firstborn. They weren't the first people
on the face of the earth. In Ezekiel 16, God says you basically
came from these other peoples. And then as well in Psalm 89,
God calls David my firstborn. Well, David wasn't the first
king of Israel, but he was the preeminent one with reference
to Israel. That's Paul's point in Colossians
1.15. And when the witnesses take that
particular passage, they completely turn the whole thing on its head. Paul's point is that this Christ
is glorious. He's wondrous. He is altogether
lovely and chief among 10,000, and they hate him so much that
they're going to attack him. It is a vicious and a vile misrepresentation. As well in their perversion of
a Bible, they add in brackets, other. All other things were
created by Him. What's the point in their interpretation? He was created first, and then
all other things were created by Him. Brethren, the Jehovah's
Witnesses are a foolish version, a dumber version, a less smart
version of Arius. Now Arius was obviously a heretic,
but Arius was a bit of a better thinker than Charles Taze Russell
and the witnesses that have followed. They're rehashing old arguments
and they're making it even worse for themselves. That's Paul's
point in Colossians 1, 15 to 20 is the preeminence and the
superlative excellence of our Lord Jesus Christ. His design
is not to somehow teach us that Jesus was the first creature
and then he created all other things. So I think that Ephraim
and Manasseh show us something about the word firstborn and
how it means, yes, the first to pass from the womb into the
world, but also it means the preeminent one. And in this instance,
that was Ephraim and it wasn't Manasseh. Well, let's close in
a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word, we thank You for the book of Genesis, and for the
wonderful promises that You make here, and for the way we see
them fleshed out in the rest of the Bible. We see the full
discovery of the promises of God, the realization and the
new covenant of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. such that
the Apostle Paul can say that in him all the promises of God
are yea and amen, even these promises that we find in the
book of Genesis. Thank you for including us in
this great number. Thank you for including us among
the elect, for giving us that blessed status of being the seed,
that blessed spiritual seed of Israel. We pray now that you
would be pleased to look with favor upon this local church,
be with each of our brothers and sisters, protect each one
physically, and God, help us all spiritually to grow in the
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. We thank
you for not only feeding us food temporally, but as well, redeeming
us from all evil. And we give praise to you through
our Lord Jesus Christ, and it's in His name that we pray. Amen.
