Genesis 48: 17-22

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

 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. Joseph said to him, “No, my father, 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 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.”  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.

(Genesis 48: 17-21)

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. The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh increase and by contrast, the tribes of Reuben will be seen to decrease during the same period. God here blessed the younger before the older and that seems to be the way God works several times in the Book of Genesis. 

I started out saying that this is an illustration of walking by faith, The New Testament tells us this whole story is an illustration of walking by faith. Maybe its viewed that way because the story highlights the fact that God appeared to Jacob and said, I’m going to bless your descendants, I’m gonna give them the land and through this story we see Jacob simply acted accordingly and lived his life as an expectation and an expression of that truth. 

A main part of the story is simply the fact that Jacob believed what God said. In the second part of the story, he blesses the youngest more than the older, and that is an indication that he understood God’s way of working. God does not always do what is natural, God does not always do what is according to the custom, God very often blesses the most unlikely, mainly because they are trusting him. This indicates that Jacob understood not just God word, but God’s way.

If we are honest, we think we understand how God works and we often expect God to work a certain way, and God very often fools us and works in a way that is contrary to what we think or what we would expect. I think a big part of walking by faith is about understanding God’s word and how that needs to feed through into understanding God’s ways. It sems to me that today a great many Christians don’t really know the Lord. I don’t mean they don’t love the Lord, they do, I just mean don’t understand the way God works.  Often God doesn’t work the way most people expect him to work, he will not be boxed in, he will not follow the customs of the day. On this occasion God said no, we’re going to bless the younger the unlikely, and that’s what he did in this passage. 

There’s a third part of this message, and it’s the last couple of verses in it, verse 21 says.

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. 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.”

(Genesis 48: 21-22)

In the first part of the passage, after he has adopted his grandchildren.

The second part is he blesses the grandchildren only he blesses the younger with a greater blessing than the older, which was backwards from that was normally done. 

In the third part of the passage, he blesses Joseph by giving him a piece of property in the land of his forefathers. But again, that’s an act of faith, because he’s assuming that God is going to fulfill his promise and give his descendants the land and that Joseph will be back in the land someday. So, he is again acting in faith, because Jacob is not in that place at the moment.

By the way, I think something struck me that has never struck me before in reading this passage while I was preparing what I was going to say. I notice he is doing what we would today call making a will, he is setting his house in order. He’s determining who gets what, and he says, hey, this is a piece of property I took by force from the Amorites using the sword and the bow, that yours. Elsewhere it says he originally bought it, so some Bible experts speculate that maybe later he ended up having to fight for it. Be all that as it may, he’s making out a will and he is giving his property to his children, in this case Joseph. I just thought it was interesting, on one hand this illustrates that he’s believing God, that God is going to give his descendants the land and the second place, he’s giving a little portion of it to Joseph, in advance which is an indication he was doing some estate planning, we would say today. At any rate, he gives Joseph a portion of land over and above what he had given others, meaning he's giving him a double blessing.

By the way, the New Testament makes note of this in John Chapter four, where it confirms that Jesus went through Samaria, and it says.

Now he had to go through Samaria. So, he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

(John 4: 5)

So, the New Testament recognizes that this is what happened. 

There have been a couple of interesting twists and turns in this thing. This passage can get a little complicated but let me sum it up and make an observation or two. I think this passage teaches very simply, that by faith Jacob adopted his two grandchildren, he blessed them, and he gave the youngest of the two a double portion of the blessing. On top of that he promised Joseph to give him a special portion of the land, all of which is by faith. By faith he adopted them. By faith he blessed them and by giving Joseph a special portion of land whilst they were still in Egypt before they were even in the land, he is by faith assuming this is going to happen in the future, and by faith he gave it to him, right then and there. That’s what’s going on in the chapter. So, what’s the point for us? 

One of the main points of this chapter is it explains the makeup of the 12 tribes of Israel. This is very important, there are 12 tribes in Israel, a lot of people know that already. How many sons did Jacob have? That’s not a trick question, 12 right, but when we start listing the tribes, one of the tribes is Ephraim and one of the tribes is Manasseh. These two grandchildren get elevated and one of those other tribes get slighted. Also, Joseph does not become the head of one of the tribes. So, he gets dropped out and these two get put in his place.  So, this chapter explains where ultimately the 12 lads come from and how the 12 tribes came to be. So that makes this important. The issue is this, Ephraim and Manasseh have now the same standing as the sons of Jacob, not just grandsons they have become equal, on parr with the other sons of Jacob.

Jacob’s life is an illustration of what it means to live by faith. I pointed this out as we’ve gone through the passage but let me close by summarizing why this is so. 

Number one, he believed God. God appeared to him, and God gave him his word that he was going to bless him and he believed what God said. This whole chapter is his illustration of him acting upon what God said.

Number two, he understood God’s ways. Living by faith is understanding God’s ways, and I think this is where people get tripped up.  There are a lot of ramifications of this, because I think many Christians start out thinking, God is going to bless them and they’re not going to have trouble like other people. Then they encounter trials, severe trials sometimes, and they get thrown off course, and that’s because they don’t understand God’s way of working. One of those ways is that God uses trials to bring us to spiritual maturity. I talk about this all the time because I’m constantly explaining the Bible and it all over the place when you read the Bible.If you don’t understand this, if you don’t understand the ways of God, and then you might start doubting God’s word when things don’t go your way. I get ask all the time things like, why would God let this happen to me? People begin to doubt God’s word because they don’t understand the way God works. God works through trials and in trials, he sometimes allows those trials to come along because if we respond properly to them, then we will grow spiritually. Many people believe the Bible is God’s word but living in faith means not only understanding what it says but God’s way of working and living accordingly. 

The third thing that this illustrates is he trusted God to carry out his promise by giving Joseph a special portion of land. He also by faith blessed his two grandchildren, even elevating them to sonship. He believed God would fulfill all this later, and the New Testament picks this up as one great illustration of living by faith. 

Hebrews Chapter 11 says, and I quote.

“By faith Jacob when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshipped leaning on the top of his staff”.

(Hebrew 11: 21)

The writer to the Hebrews says this is a great illustration of living by faith. When he was dying, he blessed the sons of Joseph and by faith he believed that God would fulfill his promise through him to them. One commentator on this passage says believers can mature in faith through a lifetime of experience in which the covenant God has been seen to deliver them [I paraphrase]. No matter how difficult the maturing process may have been, the purpose and plan of God for the future is always played out in the life of a Christian believer..

Jacob recognized that God used trouble to bring him to a place of mature faith, and that’s understanding of the way of God and not just the word of God was the key for him. This does not mean that as believers we will have the ability to predict the future. It merely means that the mature believer will become so familiar with God's ways that he can knows God's plan and can prepare for the future with certain expectations.

Living a life in the knowledge that there will be rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. Understanding that that’s the way God works, that he will later mean he will say, “well done, my good and faithful servant” means that we can and act according to his will. It’s about understanding God’s way and allowing it to affects the way we handle this present life. Walking by faith is not just understanding God’s word, it’s understanding the way God works, which is revealed to us in his word. 

How often does God reverse the order of our life and bless us most when we least expect it? It is not about God being a perpetual encouragement to us, God does not merely crown what success we have. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, the weak things of the world to amaze the powerful. The things or the people which are often despised, God has chosen to bring about and demonstrate his will. God sometimes turns it all upside down and very often blesses the weak and those the world considers the foolish, those who are considered nothing can be seen to change the world. Another prophet in the Old Testament put it this way.

 “His thoughts, God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways are higher than our ways”.

(Isaiah 55: 8)

And living a life of faith says, I want to understand not just the word, of God, but I want to understand the ways of God, so I can live accordingly. 

It’s not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.

(Zach 4:6)

So, we need to walk by faith and understanding, not just what God says, but how God works. He works by his spirit when we are weak and just trust in him. That is the way and this story vividly communicate to us that he doesn’t always work like we would normally think he might work. So maybe we need to change the way we think so it might be in line with the way God thinks.