Becoming God’s Chosen
A. Jacob-Israel adopt Joseph’s Sons
B. Jacob-Israel blesses Joseph’s Sons
Dillingham Bible Fellowship, Genesis 48, 6/8/02
I joined the Air Force right out of High School. It was not a planned out choice, for I really did not plan on joining the Air Force, much less serving in the Air Force through retirement.
Yet by the very blessed will of God it is a path that God opened for me, when I was still ignorant of Him and struggling very hard against His will.
I will be totally honest I was drunk and had been smoking marijuana the day that my friend decided he was going to go and see and Air Force recruiter. He asked me along and initially I didn’t want to go the office with him then decided it would be OK. After all I had a bad knee and couldn’t get in anyway—right.
I remember going into the office and the recruiter greeted my friend and as they were talking about the military I was just looking around. Remember this is something that had not even crossed my mind.
The recruiter started showing my friend videos of training and he happened to put on a video of Security Police and the training they received. I found that interesting and enjoyed that.
The recruited asked me my name and I gave it. He consulted his book—which I later learned was our high schools Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and stated that I had the highest score in my school.
Well to make a long story short, I left the office signed up to depart for Air Force Basic training less than a month later on an Open General career path.
Out of all the possible jobs that could have come my way, I somehow received a Law Enforcement career path.
This was totally opposite of the way I had been raised and the things I believed. I felt more akin at the time to outlaws than police officers.
You see, although I did not know what God intended to do in my life in a mere 10 years, God did know and He absolutely knew what would be best for me when I accepted him at the age of 28 in a small dorm room in Oklahoma City while I was training at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. At that time I was adopted into the ever-loving family of God, grafted into the one true vine.
This young man who had come from a life of sin in the swamps of Louisiana could and would become something of Kingdom value under the molding of God’s skilled hands. Praise God for the honor of being in HIS service here in Bristol Bay Alaska or anywhere else He might lead.
Similarly, we will walk today as Jacob-Israel adopts Joseph’s son into the nation of Israel and again we will see that as Jacob blesses them—God’s blessings do not flow after the thoughts of man. Jacob blesses the younger—in the same manner that he had been blessed and that Isaac his father had been blessed as the younger. Let us walk with Israel through chapter 48 of Genesis today.
A. Jacob-Israel adopts Joseph’s Sons
Genesis 48:1-7 (KJV)
And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. [2] And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. [3] And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, [4] And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.
[5] And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. [6] And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance. [7] And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem.
After these things—After the arrangements concerning the funeral that were recorded in the last chapter, Joseph is summoned to Jacob on his deathbed. “Manasseh and Ephraim” accompany Joseph on this last visit to their aged Patriarch.
They seem to have accompanied their father from respectful affection to their aged relative.
Today this is something that is sadly lacking in our culture. Do you show respect to your aged relatives? It is a sign of respect to do so, so should we do—Amen.
“Israel strengthened himself”—summoned his remaining powers for the interview, which was an effort to him.
“God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz.” From the terms of the blessing received it is evident that Jacob here refers to the last appearance of God to him at Bethel.
Jacob states that God Almighty—éãù ìà El Shaddai, the all-sufficient God, the Outpourer and Dispenser of mercies, (see Genesis 17:1), appeared to him at Luz, afterwards called Beth-El.
Genesis 35:11 (KJV)
And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
“And now thy sons.” After referring to the promise of a numerous offspring, and of a territory that they are to inherit, he assigns to each of the two sons of Joseph, who were born in Egypt, a place among his own sons, and a separate share in the “promised land”. In this way two shares fall to Joseph.
Some might say “But they are not the same as a brother—after all none of the other grandsons are given such honor.
It could as easily be said of us “Why am I, a wretched sinner that I was, a son of the King?” We are the grafted vine, into the true vine which rightly flows from God.
Any other children are to partake in the provision provided. All such are to be reckoned in the two tribes of which Ephraim and Manasseh are the heads.
With his thoughts on Joseph his beloved son, Jacob’s thoughts turn now to his beloved wife—his true and only wife in the eyes of God.
Jacob laments, “Rachel died upon me”—showing the heavy affliction which fell upon him.
Do you praise God for the blessings He brings into your life daily? We should, because as Jacob, we often do not realize the great things God places around us until they are gone.
Let’s now look at something that still confuses people to this day—God’s selection process.
B. Jacob-Israel blesses Joseph’s Sons
Genesis 48:8-17 (KJV)
And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, Who are these? [9] And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them. [10] Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. [11] And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath shewed me also thy seed. [12] And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. [13] And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near unto him. [14] And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
[15] And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, [16] The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. [17] And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. [18] And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. [19] And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. [20] And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. [21] And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. [22] Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
Who are these?—It could be said that God looks at us in much the same manner.
God does not view us from our external features. It was not because of his physical abilities that God chose David, but because of his inward abilities. God knows our hearts and what they are towards Him. Likewise Jacob’s eyes may have been dim for age, but he asked that they be brought near to him. Unlike God he and we cannot discern objects but by their outward appearances.
What outward appearances do you display that would show that you are a child of the King? These are really the best I can do because we cannot discern the truth of the heart that God is able to discern. We seek to see the love of Christ in someone’s life. Meekness, patience, kindness, and all such Godly character is the only suggestion that someone may have the inner change of accepting and giving themselves completely to Christ.
Jacob confesses to Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face—expressing the very tender nature of his love. This is an expression that any born again believer should come to easily. For without Christ we could not have thought to see His face.
Jacob no doubt feels himself now amply recompensed for his long grief and
trouble on account of the supposed death of Joseph, in seeing not only himself but his
two sons, whom God, by a special act of favor, is about to add to the number of his
own. .
Joseph—bowed himself with his face to the earth—This act of Joseph has been
extravagantly extolled by Dr. Delaney and others.
“When I consider him on his knees to God,” says Dr. Delaney, “I regard him as a poor mortal in the discharge of his duty to his CREATOR.
When I behold him bowing before Pharaoh, I consider him in the dutiful
posture of a subject to his prince.
But when I see him bending to the earth before a poor, old, blind, decrepit father, I behold him with admiration and delight. How doth that humiliation exalt him!” This is insufferable! For it in effect says that it is a wondrous condescension in a young man, who, in the course of God’s providence, with scarcely any efforts of his own, was raised to affluence and worldly grandeur, to show respect to his father!
And that respect was the more gratuitous and condescending, because that
father was poor, old, blind, and decrepit! The maxim of this most exceptionable flight of admiration is, that “children who have risen to affluence are not obliged to reverence their parents when reduced in their circumstances, and brought down by the weight of years and infirmities to the sides of the grave; and should they acknowledge and reverence them, it would be a mark of singular goodness, and be highly meritorious.”
Should positions of this kind pass without reprehension? I pray not. By the law of God and nature Joseph was as much bound to pay his dying father this filial respect, as he was to reverence his king, or to worship his God.
I feel that this was not particularly in the eyes of God, but something that people in the world could easily see and relate too.
This is something you and I can learn from and teach to our children. Give respect to those who have paved the way before us. Honor your father and mother in this thy years will be many.
In the ancient Near East, the custom that I see mainly in the Alaska Native communities presently is that of a child sitting quietly and respectfully in the presence of elders around them. Oh what a glorious thing, one wishes that this would again become predominant in our cultures.
Israel stretched out his right hand, etc.—Laying hands on the head was always used among the Jews in giving blessings, designating men to any office, and in the
consecration of solemn sacrifices. This is the first time we find it mentioned; but we
often read of it afterwards. See Numbers 27:18, 23; Deuteronomy 34:9; Matthew 19:13, 15; Acts 6:6; 1 Timothy 4:14.
Jacob laid his right hand on the head of the younger, which we are told he did wittingly—well knowing what he was about, for (or although) Manasseh was the first-born, knowing by the Spirit of prophecy that Ephraim’s posterity would be more powerful than that of Manasseh.
I find it noteworthy that from the beginning of His nation God seems to have preferred the younger to the elder, as Abel before Cain; Shem before
Japheth; Isaac before Ishmael; Jacob before Esau; Judah and Joseph before Reuben;
Ephraim before Manasseh; Moses before Aaron; and David before his brethren.
“This can only be resolved entirely into the wise and secret counsel of God, so far as it regards temporal blessings and national privileges, as the apostle tells us, Romans 9:11:
11(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
But this preference has no concern with God’s conferring a greater measure of his love on one person more than another. The grace that converts the soul certainly comes from the mere mercy of God, without any merit on man’s part; and is offered to all men, Titus 2:11, 12.
He blessed Joseph—The father first, and then the sons afterwards. And this is an
additional proof to what has been adduced under Genesis 48:12, of Jacob’s superiority; for the less is always blessed of the greater. Jacob was a prince of God, there is no one greater than God.
The God which fed me all my life long—Jacob is now standing on the verge of
eternity, with his faith strong in God. He sees his life to be a series of mercies; and as he had been affectionately attentive, provident, and kind to his most helpless child, so has God been to him; he has fed him all his life long; he plainly perceives that he owes every morsel of food which he has received to the mere mercy and kindness of God.
The Angel which redeemed me from all evil—Jacob speaks of non other than the Messenger of the Divine Council, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who then was the angel that redeemed Jacob, and whom he invoked to bless Ephraim
and Manasseh? Is it not JESUS? He alone can be called Goel, the redeeming Kinsman; for he alone took part of our flesh and blood that the right of redemption might be his; and that the forfeited possession of the favor and image of God might be redeemed, brought back, and restored to all those who believe in his name.
Remember, angels bless not; to GOD alone this prerogative belongs.
Let my name be named on them—“Let them be ever accounted as a part of my own
family; let them be true Israelites—persons who shall prevail with God as I have done; and the name of Abraham—being partakers of his faith; and the name of Isaac—let them be as remarkable for submissive obedience as he was.
What a blessing to become partakers of the promise. Are you this day reveling in your blessing of being one called to partake in the promises of God?
Joseph said—Not so, my father—Joseph supposed that his father had made a
mistake in laying his right hand on the head of the youngest.
Have you ever tried to fix something instead of bringing it to God? Doesn’t this mean that you think that you are superior too God. I pray that you put these thoughts far from you. We are all as filthy rags before God…For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Of course when we come to a realization of this, we can ask Jesus Christ into our hearts and lives and become grafted into the body of Christ. His body, His Church, His mission, His purpose as commanded in Matthew 28:18-20:
18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
If you would like to receive Christ today, we ask you to come forward. We would love to pray with you. If you have come to the point that you wish to come before Christ in baptism, we ask you to come forward. If you have any needs or prayer requests we ask that you let us know, we would love to pray for you.
Jacob showed us that although we may begin with problems in our walk, as long as we strive to be in the center of God’s will, God will provide for our every need in accomplishing His good and perfect will.
Closing Prayer.
