LESSON # 208 IN HIS SERVICE July 9, 2014 GENESIS: 48: 8-22 THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH’S SONS 8) Then Israel saw Josephs sons, and said, Who are these? 9) And 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. 10) 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. 11) And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face; but in fact, God has also shown me your offspring! 12) So Joseph brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth. 13) And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israels left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israels right hand, and brought them near him. 14) Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraims head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manassehs head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. 15) 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, 16) The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; Let my name be named upon them, And the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. 17) 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 fathers hand to remove it from Ephraims head to Manassehs head. 18) And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for 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 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. 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. 21) 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. 22) 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. (NKJV) Jacob is old and will soon die. So after he had made plans about his burial, Joseph came to see Jacob and brought his two sons. You might think that they are children, but they were born before the years of plenty (41:50), and the seven years of famine went by and then seventeen years that Jacob had lived in Egypt; so they must be twenty-four or twenty-five years old at least. Manasseh was the firstborn, and Joseph placed him under Jacob’s right hand for the blessing of the firstborn. But Jacob, by prophetic knowledge, changed the plan and took Ephraim to his right hand and gave him the first blessing. The younger son would be the greater. We will see when the northern tribes separate from Judah and Levi, the northern nation was sometimes called Samaria, but often it was called Ephraim. Jacob crossed his hands, so once again the younger was blessed above the older (25:23; 27:28-40). God often advanced the younger above the older, Abel above Cain, Shem above Japheth, Abraham above Nahor and Haran, Isaac above Ishmael, Jacob above Esau; Judah and Joseph were preferred before Reuben, Moses before Aaron, David and Solomon before their older brothers (1 Sam. 16:7). He tied the Jews to observe the birthright (Deut. 21:17), but He never tied Himself to observe it. We could consider this in the preference He gave to the Gentiles above the Jews; the Gentile converts were much larger in number than the Jews (Gal. 4:27). Of course, this causes free grace to become more memorable. Throughout the history of Israel, Ephraim was indeed blessed among the tribes. As a son of Joseph, Manasseh was also greatly blessed, and Ephraim and Manasseh together were the two most populous among the 12 tribes of Israel. Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim, so was Jeroboam. The tribe of Manasseh was divided, one half on one side Jordan, the other half on the other side, which made it the less powerful (Ps. 80:2). Praise His Holy Name!!!! NEXT: THE BLESSING OF REUBEN
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 09:42:19 +0000
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