Genesis 48: 1-16

Manasseh and Ephraim – Living by Faith. ( 1of 2)

Many Christians are often heard to say that we are to walk by faith, and that is fair enough because the Bible teaches us that we should do that, but what does that mean? I remember when I first heard that expression as a child, I thought, what in the world are you talking about? What does it mean? What does it look like when someone walks by faith, how is the life of someone who lives by faith look different to the usual life? What in the world does it look like? 

Well, there’s a story in the Old Testament that gives us an example of somebody who did that, and what is significant about that particular story is that the New Testament points to it as an example of living by faith. I want us to look at it today to see what the scripture says is a good example of what it takes to live by by faith. The Old Testament story I am talking about is recorded for us in Genesis chapter 48. So, let’s begin by reading it starting with, verse one, it says.

Sometime 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.

(Genesis 48: 1-2)

Now we need just a little bit of review as to what’s going on here. If you recall the story as it’s recording here in Genesis, there was a famine in the land of Israel, and Jacob and the whole family ended up going down to Egypt. And there they re-united with Joseph, who had ended up there before them mainly because his brothers had sold him into slavery. At this point we’ve already seen there was this great reunion. The Bible says in the opening verse of chapter 48, “sometime later”, or “and it came to pass”. So, after all that happened, they’ve had the reunion, they settled in Goshen, they’re all settled in and sometime later Jacob is clearly sick.  It seems he will pass away shortly, and Joseph is going to go see him, and he takes his two sons with him…. Verse three.

Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me 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.’

(Genesis 48: 3-4)

So, Jacob reminds Joseph that the Lord has appeared to him when he was back in Canaan and blessed him and made him a promise. The blessing consisted of two things, and this is very important. He said, I’m gonna make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make you a multitude of people. So, the first part of the blessing was that you’re going to be a large group of people out of you, and your children are going to become a multitude of people.  Verse four is the second part of the blessing which is, I’m going to give you this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.  God blessed Jacob by giving him an huge number of descendants and a promise of them having possession of land that would be an everlasting proprietorship. That’s the introduction, what follows next is interesting.

“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.

(Genesis 48:5)

Now, this is very important. Jacob is going to adopt the two sons of Joseph there, his grandchildren, but he says I’m going to make them like my own children. Reuben and Simeon were sons like Joseph, Josephs own brothers so in a sense Jacob is promoting Josephs two sons, his grandsons, to equal sons inheritance wise, with Josephs brothers. What verse five is describing for us is an adoption. He’s going to adopt them as if they are his children. It’ll become clear in a minute why that’s important. They need to be adopted this way to become equal heirs of Jacob, not just through Joseph.  Verse six then says

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. 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. 

(Genesis 48: 5-6)

So, he is saying the future children that they have will have an inheritance with your brothers, I am adopting them. In verse seven, he simply talks about Rachel.

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.

(Genesis 48: 7)

Rachael was his wife who he dearly loved and who was the mother of Joseph by the way and many Bible teachers come to this passage and say this is all rather out of place. He talks about the fact that she died, and he buried her in Bethlehem. It appears to me that he is sort of saying, I’m going to adopt your sons as if your mother and I had had them and we are adopting them as our sons.

This is the first part, the first phase of this story. There is actually three parts to it, and this is the first part where he simply adopts his two grandsons as if they were sons. What is significant is this, he says the Lord promised me that I was going to have multiple descendants, and those descendants were going to have the land, and now I’m going to adopt your two sons and make them as if they were my sons. God said to him, I’m going to bless you and I’m going to give you descendants, and I’m going to give the descendants the land and as an act of faith, he says to Joseph, I’m going to adopt my two grandsons and bring them to the level of my own children. I’m going to adopt them because I believe God’s promise that he said he was going to give me many descendants. The whole point of this, it seems to me, is that is he’s believing what God said. So, this is an act of faith and it is an illustration, an example of living by faith, he is believing God’s promise and acting accordingly.

So, the first element in walking by faith, is living by faith, and taking God at his word, and believing what he has to say. And Jacob here makes a practical family decision that illustrated he believes God will do what he promised to do.

People seem to think that faith is what you do when there are no facts. You know when you run out of facts, then all you have left is faith, but that is not the type of faith seen in the Bible. Biblical faith is the exact opposite of that. It’s not a leap in the dark. it’s believing facts. It’s believing what God said, you cannot exercise fate until there are facts. Some people want to say, well, I’m going to believe anyway, regardless of facts, but that’s not biblical faith. Faith isn’t about pulling something out of the air and hoping that it comes true. Faith, as seen in the Bible is saying God said this and I believe that’s true and I’m going to act accordingly in that light. It’s believing as facts what the Bible says and what God promises and living a life that reflects that as true. Walking by faith is believing what God said, it's believing God word, and living in the light of that truth. Now what happens next is almost familiar as we pick up the story at verse eight.

 When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, “Who are these?” “They are the sons God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father. Then Israel said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.”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.

(Genesis 48: 8-10)

Now this sounds like he’s never met them before, which we know is not true. Earlier in the Book of Genesis we were told that they had met them before. In verse 8 he says, who are they? So, what’s going on? Verse eight is not saying he’s asking for information; he knew they were. He just been introduced them, he had just met them, he’s confirming who they are and wants to make sure he does because he’s losing his eyesight. His eyesight is not as strong as it used to be, but then he hugs them and he kisses them.  So, the question in verse 8 is not for information, it’s for confirmation. And so, when he confirmed who they were, he had the world to him. He hugs them, he kisses them, and he blesses them. 

This is where the story gets real interesting. Let’s pick it up at verse 11.

Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.”

(Genesis 48: 11)

To appreciate this, we have to remember that in the Book of Genesis Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and Jacob his father thought that he was dead and that he would never see him again. He says at this point is, I didn’t think I would ever see your face again, and now I’m looking at your children, which is an indication of God’s great blessing to him as, finally showing him his offspring. He’s acknowledging the faithfulness of God, and in light of the ups and downs in his own life this stands as quite a contrast. He was not faithful to the Lord, and he was a deceiver and conniver, yet he says, God has greatly blessed me. So, he wants Joseph to know how grateful he is to the Lord for what he’s done.

 Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground.  And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel’s right hand and brought them close to him. 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

(Genesis 48: 12-14)

Now what in the world is going on there? In order to explain this, I need to say he is giving the double blessing, not to the oldest, which he should do, which was the custom, but he gives it to the younger. That is the point being made here. It’s a little complicated but look at verse 13. Joseph took  Ephraim’swith his right hand. Why? Because Ephraim was the youngest and he took Manasseh with the right hand. That’s the key to the passage is he took his right hand and he laid it on the youngest, not the oldest.  So, he is going to do something that is, so to speak, backwards and verse 15 says he blessed Joseph.

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, the Angel who has delivered me from all harm, he blesses these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my father’s Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly on the earth.”

(Genesis 48: 15-16)

I thought he was blessing the kids, the grandkids, but verse 15 says he also blessed Joseph. This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened in this family. It happened several times remember Jacob himself received a blessing over his elder brother. In this passage he blessed Joseph over Ruben. And now he is going to bless Ephraim over Manasseh. So, this is out of the ordinary and not the normal custom of the day. But it’s the way God works throughout the Book of Genesis. However, Jacob understood the way God works this way sometimes, and I’d like to highlight that we will see this blessing being fulfilled later. 

The blessing that the youngest would be greater than the older and we will be seen to come true later in the book of Judges when we shall see the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh increase and by contrast, the tribes of Reuben will be seen to decrease during the same period. God has blessed these two and it will be seen to be fulfilled in the Book of Judges. God blessed the younger more than the older and that seems to be the way God works several times in the Book of Genesis. 

Now I started out saying that this is an illustration of walking by faith, well I shall try and unpack what that means for us today as we close off this chapter next time.