December 5, 2020
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Reading along with us in Genesis? Here’s today’s reading:
Genesis 48 (NIV)
Manasseh and Ephraim
1 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...........Continue Reading
In Jacob’s blessing he refers to God as “the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,”
Such a powerful statement of dependence and faithfulness. This is the way he and his son Joseph really lived….trusting in God despite their situations.
Reading through this has really challenged me to be more faithful and more dependent on God and not my self.
Genesis 48
So Jacob blesses Joseph’s two sons rather than Joseph here and declares Ephraim and Manasseh his own. He also blesses the younger over the older much like Jacob was blessed over Esau but under more devious means. This also allows for 12 tribes to receive land inheritance in Canaan since the tribe of Levi was Israel’s offering to God and therefore did not receive territory. So when you minus Joseph and Levi from land divisions and add Ephraim and Manasseh, you end up with 12. It’s another significant thing that happens because of this chapter….
Genesis 48
Genesis 48
Seeing Joseph and his sons is evidence of God’s promise to Jacob. “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.’
Jacob passes on the blessing to Ephraim and Manasseh as if they are his own sons, in effect doubling Joseph’s blessing.
15Then 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,
16the 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.”