The Blessing of Joseph's Sons

In Genesis chapter 48, Jacob's about to die, Joseph receives a call, behold, your father is sick. Joseph will come, he'll bring Manasseh, he'll bring Ephraim to hear the words of their grandfather, to hear the words of his father, these last words that are so profound, that are so great that they have an everlasting impact because they are the words of God communicated through Jacob to Joseph, to Manasseh, and to Ephraim. And those words will continue on into our next chapter, chapter 49, where he will bless the remaining sons of his, and Jacob will go home to be with the Lord.

These are powerful words. I want to read them to you this morning, Genesis chapter 48, we'll read the entire chapter down through verse number 22. Now it came about after these things that Joseph was told, behold, your father is sick. So he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him, and it was told to Jacob, behold, your son Joseph has come to you. Israel collected his strength and sat up in the bed. Then Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

He said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession. And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt, before I came to you in Egypt are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are, but your offspring that had been born after them shall be yours. They should be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritance. Now as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died to my sorrow in the land of Canaan on the journey, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem.

When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, who are these? And Joseph said to his father, they are my sons whom God has given me here. So he said, bring them to me, please, that I may bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were so dim from age that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face, and behold, God has let me see your children as well.

Then Joseph took them from his knees and bowed with his face to the ground. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right, and brought them close to him. But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, crossing his hands, although Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.

And may my name live on in them, in the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. And may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim's head, it displeased him. And he grasped his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn, place your right hand on his head. But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great.

However, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, By you, Israel, shall pronounce a blessing, saying, May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. And I give you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.

There is so much in this chapter that we could spend weeks, and I know I say that every week, but there is so much here, and hopefully I can give you a good idea of what is taking place in this chapter by helping you understand, number one, Jacob's belief.

To understand that, please remember the words of Hebrews chapter 11, verse number 22. By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. So we know from Hebrews 11 that everything happened in chapter 48 by faith. That is, Jacob knew what God had said and therefore acted upon what God said, even though the greatest person in the family, Joseph, the great man of God, disagreed with what Jacob was doing, which tells you that no matter what your family says, you must always do what God says.

Right? Well, that was a pretty weak amen if you even said it. You ought to at least give a holy grunt, you know, if you can't say amen, because that is the absolute truth, and Jacob lives that for us this morning, and therefore we begin to understand more of this man's belief and what he was committed to at 147 years of age. That's important to understand as we begin looking at four things surrounding Jacob's belief. Number one, I want you to understand this, that Jacob's belief centered around a specific place, a specific place.

And listen to what Jacob says. Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. Remember that place? Go back with me to Genesis 28 if you would. Genesis chapter 28, it was a place where, where he would lay his head on a, on a stone for a pillow. We'd have a dream. And those angels would ascend and, and descend upon this ladder. And he would understand that, that God was, was above that ladder. And God would come to him and the Lord stood above it and said in verse number 13, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie.

I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth and shall spread out to the West and to the East and to the North and to the South and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. You circle that phrase because we're going to come back to that at the end of our story this morning. And we'll bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you that Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place.

And I did not know it. And he was afraid and said, how awesome is this place? This is none other than the house of God. And this is the gate of heaven. So Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone, which he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. And he called the name of that place Bethel. However, previously, the name of the city had been Luz, Bethel, the house of God. And it was there where Jacob said at the end that I will surely give to the Lord a tenth of all that I have because of what he has done this very day.

Jacob had encountered the living God. But the second thing I want you to notice is this. It involved the specific people, it says, and he said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples and will give this land to your descendants after you. There was going to be a bountiful amount of people. They were going to be fruitful and they were going to grow. And they had already begun to grow because he had been there for 17 years now.

And lo and behold, after being there some 400 years, there'll be millions of them because God will fulfill his promises. He also talks about the possession being an everlasting possession. This land will be an everlasting possession to you and to your descendants. Do you understand the ramifications of that? We got people in our pulpits all messed up about what the Bible says about Israel and their everlasting possession.

It's theirs. How long is everlasting? It seems to me like it's forever, you know what I'm saying? And all throughout the Old Testament, God reiterates that promise. Your descendants will be great. And this land will be yours. It will be an everlasting possession, everlasting. God said so. That's enough for me. Maybe I'm just too naive though. That could be. But I believe what God says.

How about you? And then it also involved a specific position, a position for Manasseh and for Ephraim. Listen to what Jacob does. Jacob takes his grandsons for his own. He takes them for himself. Manasseh and Ephraim shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are mine. Wait a minute. How can he do that? That was Jewish phraseology for adoption. And what Jacob was saying is that these two boys of yours, Joseph, are now mine. They're mine, meaning that they now will be inheritors of the land. The rest of your kids, Joseph, they're going to be yours.

But these two boys, Manasseh and Ephraim, are now mine. And what he's going to do is he is going to switch the blessing from the firstborn to the secondborn, from the oldest to the youngest. That's what Jacob's going to do. God is in complete control. You know what he does? Takes two boys born of a Gentile mother. Listen, in Jewish culture, that puts you outside the camp, not inside the camp. Jacob didn't care. You know why? Because by faith, he blessed the boys. God told him what to do. You give them an inheritance and you bless those boys.

And boy, were they blessed. Manasseh, God has caused me to forget. Ephraim, doubly fruitful, and Ephraim was extremely fruitful. In fact, the nation of Israel would be called Ephraim because Ephraim would be the 10 most northern tribes in Israel. And from Ephraim would come that one great man, Joshua, and he would be the one that would lead that nation into the promised land, Joshua, from the tribe of Ephraim, who was blessed with a double blessing and not Manasseh. Great story. Number two, Jacob's bereavement.

We've seen Jacob's belief. Second thing I want you to see is Jacob's bereavement in verse number seven.

Two things, just very briefly, his tears and his tribute. You know, the sorrow he had in his heart for Rachel never left, did it? Oh, he loved that woman. And seeing Joseph on his deathbed and understanding that his two boys were with him would remind him once again of his beloved Rachel. But looking into the eyes of Joseph, he would see the eyes of Rachel. He would shed some tears and then he would give a tribute, a tribute to Rachel by blessing her oldest son, Joseph, by taking his two boys and giving them a double portion.

He was going to pay tribute to Rachel. Through all this, he was thinking of Rachel. The third thing I want you to see is I want you to see Jacob's blessing.

Verse number eight, when Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, who are these? And Joseph said to his father, they are my sons, what's the next phrase, whom God has given me. Just as a little side note, you need to understand something. Joseph was a man who continually saw the hand of God upon his life, right? He understood that children are an inheritance from the Lord. They're a gift from God, right? These men understood the hand of God upon their lives. They understood it. That's the way we need to be, right?

That's the way we need to be able to infect our children by living a life committed to following the direction of God, like father, like son. This is Manasseh. This is Ephraim. Now, Jacob knew who they were. He knew who they were. But remember, he couldn't see. He couldn't see. He was blind physically, but he wasn't blind spiritually. He could see. He could still see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Jacob could accurately perceive his God in order that he might accurately proclaim his God to Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim.

But look with me at this blessing. The first thing I want you to see is that this blessing demonstrated something.

It demonstrated Jacob's love for these boys. Now, the eyes of Israel were so dim from age that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them. Oh, he loved these boys. And he wanted to demonstrate this love to them because he wanted them to understand that what he was about to say was going to change the direction of their lives forever. Everything about what they had thought or learned, any aspirations they had about growing up and following dad as the next authority in line to Pharaoh was all going to be gone.

And these boys needed to understand that what their father was going to do was an act of love, a love for God and a love for them. And he would demonstrate that love. He would kiss them. He would embrace them. The second thing I want you to see about this blessing is it's designed, it's designed.

It was designed to bless Ephraim over Manasseh. When you were going to bless the oldest son, you would bless him with your right hand upon him. You would bless the second oldest with your left hand upon him and the third with your left, fourth, fifth, on down the line, always with your left hand.

But the right hand would be on the oldest son. And so he lined them up correctly so that they would, they would, they would go to dad properly. You got to love how we always want to help God out through the process, right? And Joseph's no different than us. I'll make sure, you know, dad's got the right hand on the right guy here. Don't want to put them on the wrong guy here, you know, and, and, and then, and then Jacob, he crosses his hands and puts his right hand on Ephraim, his left hand on Manasseh, sly old man.

And he knew exactly what he was doing because the blessing was designed to give Ephraim the inheritance of the firstborn and Manasseh the inheritance of the secondborn, although Manasseh was the oldest one. Third thing I want you to see is the description of this blessing.

And this is so powerful, so powerful because you see, understand this, that what, what Jacob is doing was, was blessing Joseph by blessing his boys because what they received in effect is what Joseph himself received. He says this, the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day. The same God of Abraham, the same God of Isaac is my God and he has been my shepherd to this very day. Listen, the whole shepherdology of the Bible is rooted in Genesis chapter 48, in Jacob realizing that God was his shepherd.

Hebrews chapter 13, listen to the verse number 20, now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord equip you in every good thing to do as well, working in us that which is pleasing in the sight through Jesus Christ to him be the glory forever and ever, amen. So important. Why? Manasseh and Ephraim need to understand that, the legacy of God. And so he speaks of the great shepherdhood of Jehovah God. Time is fleeing, but I got to go to Jacob's behavior.

Two things I want you to notice about Jacob's behavior. Number one, you notice the displeasure of Joseph and the determination of Jacob.

The Bible tells us in, in verse number 17, when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim's head, it displeased him. And he grasped his father's hand and removed it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, not so my father, for this one is the firstborn, place your right hand on his head. Listen, of all that we have read of Joseph, there isn't one time Joseph ever questioned what God was doing in his life until here, only time. But it was short-lived question, short-lived.

These are his boys. He wants his boys to receive the blessing. Maybe he thinks for a moment that dad, dad's lost it. He says, dad, wait, whoa, dad, wrong, wrong hand, move your hand, dad, you're on the wrong kid. And what does, what does Jacob say? I know, I know my son. This man knew. How did he know? God told him, that's how he knew. By faith, he blessed these boys. He was 11, 22. God told him that's how he knew. Listen, let me tell you something.

True faith is confident in God's word. True faith is confident in God's word. And we understand that by looking at verses three and four of Genesis 48. He had met God in the house of God. And he had realized the direction of God. He had realized the revelation of God. And he was confident in God's word. And true faith is not only confident in God's word, but true faith, believe it or not, will be criticized by even your family members. But true faith is always certain, always certain of the plan of God.

He says, I know, I know my son exactly what I am doing. True faith is always confident in God's word. True faith is criticized even by family members. True faith is certain in what it believes, and true faith is contagious in the lives of others. How do we know? Because Joseph's displeasure is short-lived. He doesn't say anything else, because dad knows. How does dad know? Because dad has heard the voice of God. And true faith is always commended by God. He was 11. As God commends Jacob, as God commends Joseph, as God commends Abraham and Isaac, without faith it is impossible to please God.

Jacob had faith. He believed in his God. This is the fifth time we read in the book of Genesis where God reverses the firstborn blessing. It wasn't Cain, but it was Abel. It wasn't Ishmael. It was Isaac. It wasn't Esau. It was Jacob. It wasn't Reuben. It was Joseph. And it wasn't Manasseh. It was Ephraim. Why does God do that? Just to let you know, you know nothing. That's why. He knows it all. Just to mess up our little minds so that we never think we can figure God out. This is the way God wants to do it.

So this is the way God did it. Our time is gone, but I've got to give you the last point, and that's Jacob's bestowal. This is so important. It says in verses 21 and 22, then Israel said to Joseph, behold, I'm about to die, but God will be with you. Stop right there. God's going to be with you. The first thing I want you to see is the Lord, and the second thing I want you to see is the land, but the first thing is the Lord.

God is going to be with you. You know, that little phrase, I am with you, is a great phrase. Remember Joshua? From the tribe of Ephraim, who would lead the nation of Israel in the Canaan, God said to him, Joshua 1, verse number 5, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. Remember Genesis 39, Joseph's life, the many times it represents the fact or reiterates the fact that the Lord was with Joseph through his temptation, through his imprisonment, so much so that the master of his house understood that Joseph's God was with him.

Jacob, understanding that God has been with him all of his life, remember back in Genesis 28, Genesis 35, I just circled that phrase, I will be with you. This is the fifth time that Jacob speaks about the fact of God being with him. God told him, I'm going to be with you, I'm going to be with you, and Jacob would be able to reiterate back in Genesis chapter 31 and 35 that God has been with me. He has been with me. And now he can say with assurance, Joseph, Joseph, I'm going to die, but God is with you.

I'm going to read this because I think it's important, because I think so many times we miss this. A. W. Tozer in his book, The Pursuit of God, The Pursuit of Man, says this, a spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us all together within the reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His presence. We would think of God then as maintaining the unity of His uncreated being throughout all His works and His years. As ever saying, not only I did and I will do, but also I do and I am doing.

A robust faith requires that we grasp this truth firmly, yet we know how seldom such a thought enters our minds. We habitually stand in our now and look back by faith to see the past filled with God. We look forward and see Him inhabited in our future, but our now is uninhabited except for ourselves. Thus we are guilty of a kind of temporary atheism, which leaves us alone in the universe while for the time God is not. We talk of Him much and loudly, but we secretly think of Him as being absent, and we think of ourselves as inhabiting a parenthetic interval between the God who was and the God who will be.

And we are lonely with an ancient and cosmic loneliness. We are each like a little child lost in a crowded market, who is strayed but a few feet from its mother, and yet because she cannot be seen, the child is inconsolable. So we try by every method devised by religion to relieve our fears and heal our hidden sadness, but with all our efforts we remain unhappy still, with the settled despair of men alone in the vast and deserted universe. But for all our fears, we are not alone. Our trouble is that we think of ourselves as being alone.

He is so right. We look back and we can see God in our past. We look ahead and we can see God in our future. But right now, we act as practical atheists and deny the existence of God in our lives. Isn't that what happens when you go through a difficult time, a heartache, a problem? Somehow, we think that we're lonely, we're all alone, that God is not there, living a life of atheism. So Jacob assures Joseph, God will be with you. He assures him with the presence of Almighty God, He'll be with you and He will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

That's important. Why? Because what He needs to communicate to His children and to His children's children is that during those 400 years of slavery, God is with them. Because for all practical purposes, the nation of Israel would think, God's not here. He was with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but He's not with us today. But He was. He never left them. He was always with them. And then there'll come a time where He'll hear their cry, and He'll raise up another deliverer named Moses. He will lead them out of that bondage.

But God was always there. Wouldn't it be good at the end of your life to be able to look your son in the face, your daughter in the face, your grandchildren say, God has been my shepherd until this very day. God has guided me, protected me, watched over me. The God of my father, the God of your grandfather is my God. And He will protect and watch and guide over you as well. Because He will always be with you. What a great blessing. Just a time alone with Joseph and his boys. What a precious day it must have been.

He's not done yet. He has to bless the rest of his boys. But that's in chapter 49. Let's pray.