Genesis 48:1-4
Jacob had his son Joseph with him the first seventeen years of his life and the last seventeen years. Joseph had already given him the promise to carry his father back and bury him with his fathers in the Promised Land. Joseph had the authority and means to make this happen and Jacob received that promise from his son early on. After the seventeen years of life in Egypt Jacob drew ill. At 147 years old we can imagine any illness is dire. Joseph was called and he brought his sons with him.
This scene plays out as if he knew full well this was the time of final blessing. The final blessing was the prescribed time and way of saying certain things. Jacob reminded Joseph of a story he surely heard previously. It was life changing day that the Lord appeared to him at Luz (Gen 28:10). It was the night Jacob saw the ladder to heaven as he laid on the rock. His life was a disaster, alienated from his brother, father and separated from his mother. He was on the way to his father's country, essentially running for his life. From the top of the ladder, as the Lord looked over his creation, He gave the covenant promise to Jacob.
"I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." (Gen 28:13-15)
Note the three key points that Jacob made of the promise:
- El Shaddai – the source and power behind the promise. Jacob said it was El Shaddai who gave him this promise, God all power, almighty. There is so much wrapped up in this name. It speaks of his sovereignty; his authority over all the affairs of man.
- Descendants – as numerous as the stars of the sky or dust of the earth. We can imagine this might be the extended descendants of Christianity by the blessing that came to the gentile nations through Christ.
- Land – A place to set your feet, to raise families, to worship and teach and honor the Lord in a righteous life. It would be an everlasting possession given to the descendants by the Lord.
These are the main elements of the promise given by God. Later, the Jews would come to think of the land as theirs to do as they saw fit. They separated from Almighty, thinking they could keep all the blessings they had from Him. This ended in exile from the land, deaths of many of the descendants and scattering of the remaining. The land was inhabited by gentile kingdoms for a time.
Genesis 48:5-7
Ephraim and Manasseh were adopted by Israel as his own. From then on, they would be 'reckoned' as an equal son of Jacob. This would be as if Jacob fathered them himself. This is Joseph's double blessing as the firstborn of his wife Rachel. He had always considered her his wife first. Any other children of Joseph would be his. Their inheritance would be within that of Ephraim and Manasseh.
We can imagine this 147-year-old remembered those days. He went to Paddan scared, lonely and on the run but with a promise. As he returned so many hears later, he had two wives, two concubines a family of kids, along with servants. The glorious time of return to the land and life was darkened by the death of the love of his life. They were a short distance from Bethlehem when she passed away, so it was there alongside the road, he buried her.
Note: The phrase 'alongside the road' might sound cheap and flippant, as if she were buried on the easement near the ditch. But in that time, there was road and there was wilderness. To bury her there gave the place identity (at least to the family). We might even look at this as the sojourn of the matriarch. In faith she walked, on her way to Bethlehem (longing for the birth of messiah who would come from that very place?). He trip was not complete, at least not yet. She would have been among the OT saints the Lord Jesus took to heaven when he rose from the grave. We will see by the end of chapter 49, this is not where he wanted to bury her. It was a compromise caused by what appeared to be sinful delays along the way.
Genesis 48:8-9
This appears to be part of a customary legal proceeding; the formal introduction of the sons.
At the same, do you suppose he is remembering the deception he pulled on his father Isaac? I imagine this was the moment when he fully understood how his father might have felt about the deception played on him.
Genesis 48:9b-11
Jacob's eyesight was failing, but what a blessing to see his grandsons, particularly when he thought he'd never see his son again. While Jacob will give the blessing, he was surely acknowledging the great blessing of his life.
There was a normal posture that was taken for the formal adoption. Although it was normally done with younger children and parents. The children were set in some way between the knees of the father who would adopt them. This was to show they were now to be 'as if' they had come from his loins. This was the idea but with the father 147 and the two sons healthy young twenty somethings, it was surely an awkward moment as he kissed them and embraced them.
Genesis 48:12-14
Joseph positioned his sons before Israel, making it easy for him to place his right hand on Manasseh, the eldest. The right hand was the symbol of power and authority of coregency. Normally the patriarch would lay his right hand on the oldest and give a special blessing. In this case, Israel crossed his hands and gave the special blessing to the younger Ephraim. This was also Joseph's blessing as the father.
Genesis 48:15-16
Israel's first description of God was the one his fathers walked before in faith. He himself did not claim to walk in faith, that was up to God to decide. He did claim God as his shepherd, the one who did so all his life. The word shepherd has tending, feeding and guarding all rolled up in it. That's why the NKJV and others translate this phrase to 'The God who has fed me'.
The Angel who delivered Jacob is a reference to the times when God intervened directly in his life to save him from harm or great error. Maybe the most profound was the night before meeting Esau when he wrestled with the Lord and received a new name. Also, soon after the Dinah incident at Shechem, after stopping halfway, the Lord told him to go all the way to Bethel. Jacob is asking for the same care and intervention by God into these sons lives.
They would be tribes of Israel, forever associated with him, Isaac and Abraham. He then associates the covenant promises with them with the blessing to greatly increase.
Genesis 48:17-19
Joseph thought his father was confused and had made a mistake. He tried to take his hand to correct him but Jacob corrected Joseph; he knew exactly what he was doing. As Isaac was blessed instead of Ishmael, as Jacob instead of Esau, so Ephraim would be blessed more so than Manasseh. Manasseh would become a people but Ephraim would be a multitude; language linking his future to the covenant promise. Ephraim did become greater than Manasseh. Ephraim was the name used for the Northern tribes when the country split.
Genesis 48:20-22
Jacob blessed his grandsons, adopting them into his inheritance as two as Joseph representatives. They would be so blessed as to stand as a standard of God blessing his people; others would use them as a reference to offer others blessing, "May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh."
Verse 21 is spoken to Joseph in regard to all the Israelites. God would take them back to the land in time. So he gave Joseph a piece of land he would not give to the other sons. The word translated to 'ridge of land' is Shechem. This piece of land was taken from the Amorites; this isn't a reference to the slaughter at Shechem, Jacob didn't take part in that. He condemned that slaughter. This must have been an even not written of in the bible.
©2019 Doug Ford
Facebook