Genesis 48

The Blessing

"By faith Jacob ... blessed both the sons of Joseph" (Hebrews 11:21)

This chapter opens with the realisation that Jacob is ill. He is visited by Joseph, along with his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. The significance of these sons, and their names, is given to us in 41:51-52. The name 'Manasseh' symbolised the forgetting of things in the past. The name 'Ephraim' meant that even in the land of Egypt Joseph was fruitful with the blessing of God. Now the time has come for God's sovereign choice of Joseph's son to be made known.

In verse 1 the sons are named 'Manasseh and Ephraim', given the order of seniority. But thereafter their names are reversed in the couplet, as an indication of the place given to Ephraim. The story is an intriguing one: after recounting the promise of God to him, Jacob desires to bless the two sons of Joseph. He places his right hand on the head of Ephraim, the younger son, and his left on that of Manasseh. Joseph tries to alter this positioning, because ordinarily the right hand signifies the blessing which might have been expected to be extended to the elder son. But Jacob is adamant -- the older brother would serve the younger brother.

We might be tempted to read little into this account of a grandfather's blessing, were it not for the fact that Hebrews 11 draws attention specifically to this incident in order to illustrate for us the nature of faith. When Jacob was dying, he exercised faith by pronouncing this blessing upon the sons of Joseph. The New Testament uses this chapter to remind us of the importance of faith. For that reason, the text in Hebrews 11 is a fitting 'window' through which to examine this chapter.

Faith and Promise

Jacob's faith is grounded in the promises of God. For this reason, he recounts the words of God to him in verses 3-4. We are reminded of who gave these promises to him -- it was God Almighty, the all-powerful, all-glorious God of the covenant. We are reminded of where he received these promises -- at Luz or Bethel in the land of Canaan (35:1-15), where the promises of inheritance and possession originally given to Abraham, and then to Isaac, were renewed to Jacob. And we are reminded of what the substance of the promise was -- that Jacobs's seed would possess the land of Canaan. Now, from his death-bed in the land of Egypt, Jacob affirms his faith commitment to the promises of God. He believes in their fulfillment, even although he is literally many miles away from Canaan. He knows that he will have a possession, covenanted to him by the Creator God himself.

Let's remind ourselves that what Jacob is speaking of here is nothing less than the restoration of Paradise through the saving work of God's covenant grace. God created Adam and Eve with an inheritance -- the Garden of Eden represented their possession of a righteous relationship with God which was filled with the blessings of God's grace. But through sin, both the literal possession of land and the spiritual reality it symbolised were lost to man. God has been working in salvation history to restore by grace what was lost through sin. And by faith in the promises of God Jacob, and we, can rest secure.

Faith and Experience

Jacob's faith had been nurtured in the school of experience. He had known his share of trials and of dangers, of hills to climb and valleys to traverse. He had been a fugitive from his brother, deceiving his father to obtain the blessing, and in turn he had been deceived by his sons who had tricked him into believing that Joseph was dead. The reference to Rachel in verse 7 is a poignant reminder of things that Jacob learned along the way.

And I wonder if God brought these things home to him as he blessed Manasseh and Ephraim, pronouncing solemnly in verse 19 that the younger brother would be greater than the elder brother! After all, that had happened in his own life too: the elder served the younger. The sons of Joseph will experience an echo of what took place in the family of Isaac. There are patterns in history! There is an inviolable law of returns, in which events follow one another as the harvest follows the sowing and as the fruit the seed. Our experiences too may become the ground in which faith is forged, taught and sharpened. The life-changing events of our history become the influences which turn faith Godward and Heavenward.

Faith and Sovereignty

Jacob's faith was also faith in a Sovereign God. This, I think, is the message of the hands. Jacob placed his right hand on the younger son, on the head of Ephraim. It was fitting, however, to expect the blessing to be tied to primogeniture to the firstborn, Manasseh. Joseph tried to correct the error (verses 17-18).

Verse 17 talks about what Joseph 'saw' -- that his father's right hand was on the head of Ephraim. A stickler for protocol, he concluded that this was wrong. But faith is also an eye, and I think Jacob saw more than Joseph did. I think that by the eye of faith Jacob saw how Ephraim was to develop and grow into a great people in a way that Manasseh would not; and although a blessing would be enjoyed by both sons and their descendants (verse 16,20), Ephraim becomes significant in the Old Testament as symbolising the whole of Israel, a representative of the covenant people as a whole (see, for example, how frequently Hosea speaks of Ephraim as a synonym for Israel). This symbolism is prominent in Ezekiel, where the rod of Judah and the rod of Joseph in the hand of Ephraim become symbolic of the two parts of the kingdom.

In other words, Jacob is anticipating the whole of the Old Testament revelation of God's salvation in and through Israel. And as the history progresses, and the kingdom divides, it will be evident that the blessing of God will be mediated particularly through Judah, in the south. Nonetheless, the northern territory is also favoured. Israel (that is, the sons of Jacob) will be represented particularly by Ephraim, the younger son of Joseph.

This surely is one of the supreme lessons of Genesis -- indeed, of the whole Bible. We, like Joseph, may consider some events to be wrong, and some actions to be in error. Yet God's purposes stand sure, and God's plan will prosper. In spite of all that we are, there is a loving hand guiding our events and purposes and fashioning them into a sovereign purpose of grace.

Faith and Assurance

How confidently Jacob speaks of things that are yet to be! He is assured, through what he has seen of God's promise and God's providence, that God will bless the sons of Joseph (verse 20) and keep Joseph himself after Jacob's own death (verse 21). There is no doubt. We may often be assailed with doubts and fears, with anxieties and concerns; but what a blessing to know that the purposes of God stand sure. We need not fear if God is with us.

Faith and Hope

The blessing of Joseph's sons is for the future, and it is to the future that Jacob looks. He knows that Joseph will be brought to Canaan, to the land of his fathers (verse 21), and will enjoy an added portion of the inheritance (verse 22). Thus, just as Jacob began by giving Joseph an additional gift -- which began the whole chain of events leading to Egypt -- he is now to allot him an additional portion in Egypt.

But this is more than the promise of earthly land. This prospect is gilded with the hope of resurrection. Egypt has been Joseph's portion, but the promise extends far beyond the present, and far beyond distant horizons. Genesis anticipates the settlement in Canaan of which the Old Testament speaks with such clarity and such accuracy. And this hope remains the hope of God's people. There is a land beyond our immediate horizons, to which at last we shall go. And there all will be well.