Recap: (see Genesis 35b) Judah became the forefather of David, and Jesus. Joseph was sold as a slave in Egypt, and when Pharaoh had dreams, Joseph explained that they pointed to impending famine. He was put in charge of the grain stores. When the famine severely affected Joseph’s family they too went for grain. Joseph finally arranged for them to move to Egypt
These final studies are short and could be combined
Read Genesis 48:1-22
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.
Joseph would have been aware of the events of Genesis 27 – where his father had tricked Isaac, and had taken the blessing due to Esau. He also knew that there was something particularly important in passing on this blessing to future generations.
So this was not a normal visit to a dying man, Joseph knew it and so did Jacob.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, ‘God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me 4 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.”
So this blessing was to be a reinforcement of God’s covenant to the next generation, although strictly speaking it should have been to Joseph and his brothers. Jacob knew this, but now he removed his son Joseph from the line of succession and replaced him with his two grandsons: Ephraim and Manasseh!
5 ‘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. 6 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.
This also meant that any other children that Joseph might have had lost their family name, they would have to choose one of their brothers’ names.
7 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).
As Rachel had died in childbirth, possibly Jacob thought that she would have gone on to bear him more children, and thus wanted to adopt Joseph’s young sons as his own.
The tribal territories as allocated by Moses would be known by the names of Jacob’s (Israel’s) sons: Reuben, Simeon, Judah etc. Joseph would have two portions, but would not himself be remembered by name, his allocations would bear the names of his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.
As that would make thirteen tribes, how is it they are known as twelve?
The tribe of Levi, the priests, would not receive a specific named territory but would be allocated towns throughout the land of Israel.
That explained the way succession worked, now back to the narrative!
8 When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, ‘Who are these?’
9 ‘They are the sons God has given me here,’ Joseph said to his father.
Then Israel said, ‘bring them to me so that I may bless them.’
10 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.
11 Israel said to Joseph, ‘I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.’
12 Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground.
I picture Jacob sitting on the edge of his bed (Genesis 49:33). The boys were young, born during the last seven years, and could well have climbed onto their grandfather’s knees!
13 And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right towards Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left towards Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him. 14 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.
15 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,
16 the 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.’
First he blessed Joseph, then he started to bless the boys, but Joseph interrupted him.
17 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. 18 Joseph said to him, ‘No, my father, 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 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.’
Who does this remind us of? Jacob himself, who was favoured over Esau.
God’s ways are not our ways, and he often makes choices which are contrary to the way we would have chosen. He knew what the future held for these two boys, and he knew that eventually the tribal name ‘Ephraim’ would be used to refer to the whole of the northern region of Israel
20 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.
21 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. 22 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.’
Joseph is not to be left landless – his father specifically assigned to him ‘the ridge I took from the Amorites’ but where that was is uncertain. ‘ridge of land’ is ‘shechem’ in Hebrew, and might refer to the town of Shechem which was overrun by Joseph’s brothers (Genesis 34) or perhaps it was the land he bought there (Genesis 33:19), or just land won in a battle that is not recorded in scripture.
Having Blessed Joseph it is now the turn of his brothers.
