Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh

Story: Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh

Passage: Genesis 48

Characters:  Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim, Manasseh

Summary:  Jacob got sick and was going to die.  He told Joseph that his sons were going to be included in his inheritance.  He wanted to bless Ephraim and Manasseh.  Joseph put Manasseh on Jacob’s right side and Ephraim on his left, but Jacob crossed his hands and put his right hand on Ephraim who was younger.  Joseph was upset but Jacob told him that Ephraim would be greater than Manasseh. 

Notes: At the end of Jacob’s life, he remembers when God appeared to him at Bethel and he repeats the words of God’s covenant to Joseph.  Jacob basically adopted Ephraim and Manasseh into his family on the same level as the first and second born.  This is possibly because as first and second born, Simeon and Levi had messed up.  Joseph shows incredible respect to his father.  His position did not diminish that.  The right hand in the Bible represented strength and favor.  Joseph tried to make sure his older son was the one who was blessed, but Jacob had other plans.  He deliberately crossed his arms.  Joseph was obviously frustrated.  I understand why, but in reality, he was ruler of Egypt and he was the second youngest in his family.  He was no stranger to birth order meaning very little to God.  Jacob says that God has been his shepherd his whole life.  This is the first reference to God as a shepherd and it shows that Jacob was not focused on what he had done for God, but rather on what God had done for him.  Jacob told Joseph that God would be with Him.  This was the biggest and most important lesson Jacob had learned over his life and we would be wise to pay attention.  After everything Jacob had seen and gone through, the thing he wanted Joseph to grasp was that God would be with Him.  This is also what Jesus tells us a couple thousand years later.   This is obviously an important point. 

Questions:  What did Joseph think about his father switching his hands?  Why did Jacob switch his hands?  What did Ephraim and Manasseh think of it?  Does Ephraim end up being stronger eventually?

Lessons:  When God will always be with us.  This sounds so normal we tend to speed over it.  But we need to stop and really meditate on the fact that God will be with us always.