Today in God's Word—December 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
December 4, Genesis 48
"The God before whom my father Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." - Genesis 48:15-16
The cancer was eating away his life. He was very weak. For the first time in my life, my father looked frail to me. But when my brother or I would walk into the hospital room, Dad would put on his trademark grin and try to show us that he was doing all right. I saw the same thing years later with my mother. She was dying from COPD and other health complications. In the last year of her life, her world shrank to her house, then her bedroom and bathroom and finally to her bed as her breath and energy slipped away. But when I would come in with some of her grandchildren or especially the great-grandchildren, she would deliver a remarkable performance of smiles and wide-eyed attention to what the little children would tell her, even if she couldn't hear a word they said. Before a guest arrived, she'd sit up in the bed, call for her mirror, hairbrush, blush and lipstick. It took all her strength, but she was determined.
I thought about my own dying parents and how they wanted to appear strong, when as Paul would put it, "the outer person is wasting away." Verse 2 of chapter 48 sparked those memories: "And it was told to Jacob, 'Your son Joseph has come to you.' Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in the bed.“ Jacob's performance wasn't to impress his son or protect the grandsons, though. He had important business, family business, covenant business to do with Joseph and his sons.
Jacob's words to Joseph are full of rich significance and deep meaning. He announced his decision to legally adopt Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim who had been born in Egypt. By counting them the same as Reuben or Simeon, he in essence gave the double portion of the birthright to Joseph. Reuben and Simeon had proven themselves unworthy of consideration. Levi and Judah would both be very important to the developing nation. But instead of Leah's first born, it would be Rachel who (posthumously) gained the additional prestige of two more sons and the birthright passed on to them.
The other business Jacob sat up to do was the formal blessing of Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph and his two sons, now young men in their early twenties, knelt at Jacob's bed. This was to show reverence to the old man, and also to get within reach of his hands as he sat on the bed. The solemn, formal blessing was beautiful and rich. As younger Isaac had been selected over Ishmael, as Jacob had been chosen over slightly older Esau, so Jacob gave the greater honor to the younger. He prophesied the prominence that Ephraim's descendants would have in the history of the people. Ephraim became a diminutive, tender synonym the later prophets used repeatedly to refer to the whole nation. Joseph wanted to correct his father as he laid hands on the boys to bless them. But Jacob assured him he intended to put his right hand of greater blessing on Ephraim.
We must leave some things unsaid in this chapter, but I must call your attention to one of the great "beauty marks" in the Bible here. Glance back to the text at the top of today's entry, from verses 15 and 16. Jacob's threefold description of God is magnificent. Jacob knew God as the God of his fathers Abraham and Isaac, the God who had been his shepherd throughout his life and the angel of Jehovah who had redeemed him from all evil. As he lay dying, he performed perhaps the greatest duty of the covenant patriarch. He magnified God's faithfulness as the God of covenant, God's provision and guidance as the shepherd, and God's protection over his people from all evil as the angel of the Lord. His descendants would need to know and trust God in all these ways. By blessing Joseph's sons in this way, he gave the nation a reminder of who they were and whose they were.
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