Story 71 Jacob Blesses His Sons
Israel’s strength continued to fail. Joseph heard that he was becoming dangerously ill. He brought his sons Manasseh and Ephraim to Goshen to see their grandfather. When Jacob learned that Joseph had come, he pulled himself up in his bed with all his strength so he could bless him. He knew that the words he spoke would be powerful not only for his grandsons, but for the descendants God was going to bring through them. He was going to give a blessing by faith, believing in generations that he could not see, trusting that God would return them to the Land of Promise and make them great as a people.
He 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 will 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.”
Wow. The Lord choose to reveal himself to Jacob with his actual, visible presence. It was not a dream or a vision. God did not send and angel for this message. By showing up himself, the Lord was showing that what he said to Jacob had exalted significance and purpose.
God did not come to Joseph or any of his brothers in the same way. Jacob was the last of the three great patriarch’s, the fathers of the nation of Israel. God appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to establish the covenant commitment with them.
When Jacob speaks here, he speaks with the authority of God as his empowered servant. He is speaking the promises of God onto the next generation and all generations. This was a mighty and important moment for God’s people! Jacob went on;
“‘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, much as Reuben and Simeon are mine. Any children born to you after them will be yours. In the territory they inherit they will reckoned under the names of their brothers.’”
Genesis 48:3-6
Did you understand that? God had just taken Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, and made them as if they were the sons of Jacob. They were as much his direct descendants as Reuben and Simeon.
Jacob went on to tell them about the deep sadness he felt when Joseph’s mother, Rachel, died on their journeys. He had to bury her in Ephrath, the land that would be called Bethlehem. Now Joseph’s two oldest sons would be like the sons that Rachel had never been able to provide. When the tribes of Israel were counted, Ephraim and Manasseh would be listed right alongside Reuben, Simeon, Judah, and all the rest.
This was a great and high honor for Ephraim and Manasseh. Jacob had fifty two grandsons, and out of all of them, these two were especially chosen. With these instructions, the Lord was looking ahead to the day when Jacob’s descendants went back into the Land of Promise. He would break the land up into vast sections, giving one section to each of the tribes of Jacob. Each tribe was the group that descended from one of his sons. Reuben’s descendants would make up a tribe and so would Simeon’s. But Joseph’s descendants would be counted as two tribes, and they would be named after his two sons. Joseph wouldn’t have a tribe in his own name, but he received a double portion of the land. It was the inheritance that belonged to the first born son! Do you remember how Jacob had once connived to take the blessing of the first born from Esau? Well, this great honor was granted to Joseph by the Lord!
God told these things to Jacob, and he accepted them by faith. He trusted that the Lord had power to do what he said he would. One day, God as going to bring the descendants of Israel back to the Land of Promise, and the twelve tribes would make up one mighty nation.
Jacob had officially adopted Joseph’s sons, but there was something yet to be done. As he spoke with Joseph, he noticed that Manasseh and Ephraim were standing nearby, though in his old age, he could not see who they were. He asked Joseph. Joseph said, “‘They are the sons God has given me here.’” Jacob told him to bring them close to him. Jacob took his grandsons and kissed them and held them on his knee. He said, “‘I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children, too.’”
Joseph took his sons off the knees of their grandfather and got down on the floor, bowing before his father with his face to the ground. Then he got up and prepared his sons to be blessed by their grandfather. All of these actions, the drawing the sons on Jacob’s knees, the kissing, and the bowing, showed the real love, affection, and respect that they held for each other. But they were also a part of a formal ritual that Jacob was carrying out. It was a legal transaction. This was an important ceremony, an official transferring of sacred promises and blessing onto the next generation. It was high, holy, and powerful to work in the world and in the future.
Once the official adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh was over, it was time for Jacob to give them his blessings. Joseph brought Manasseh up to Jacob’s right hand, for he was the firstborn and the right hand was a place of glory and honor. He brought Ephraim, as the second born son, up to Jacob’s left hand. But Jacob took his right hand and stretched it over and rested it on Ephraim’s head. He took his left hand, crossed it over his right, and put it on Manasseh’s head.
Then Jacob blessed Joseph and the line of descendants that would come after him;
“‘May 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 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 upon the earth.’”
Genesis 48:15-16
God would be like a shepherd to these sons. He would protect and guide, just as he had guided Jacob through his whole life. Jacob also blessed them so that God would be their angel. Just as Jacob wrestled with God in the form of an angel and received his blessing, these sons would be blessed. He would protect them from all harm and increase them just as the family of Jacob had increased.
When Joseph heard the blessing and saw that Jacob’s right hand was on Ephraim’s head instead of Manasseh’s, he was upset. The right hand belonged on the head of the oldest son. He took his father’s hand and tried to move it to Manasseh’s. “‘No, my father,’” he said. “‘This one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.’” He knew that his father’s sight had failed, and thought Jacob had made a mistake.
But Jacob knew exactly what he was doing. It was on purpose. He was acting on the will of God. “‘I know, my son, I know,’” he said, “‘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.’” Then he blessed them and said,
“‘In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing:
“May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh’” (Gen. 48:20).
If we look forward into the future of Israel, we can see the nation God would raise up through Jacob’s descendants. We can see how these blessings came true. Four hundred years after Jacob’s blessings, two great censuses would be taken. All the sons of each tribe would be counted. The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh would grow from 72,700 men to 85,200 in forty years. But Reuben and Simeon’s tribes would shrink from 105,800 to 65,930. Many hundreds of years later, Ephraim would become the name that was used to describe all ten tribes in the northern regions of the land of Israel, and it would be the most powerful of them all. When God spoke through his servants about his holy nation, he spoke not only for their own time, but for time and times to come! Jacob spoke his blessings by faith with confidence in what he could not see. Isn’t it amazing that we can stand on the other side of history and see how they came true?