Wed, 15 February, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Genesis 48:1-7

¹ After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. ² And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you.” Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. ³ And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, ⁴ and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’ ⁵ And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. ⁶ And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. ⁷ As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”

We come to the end of Jacob’s life. In this passage, Jacob adopts Joseph’s sons born during his time in Egypt, effectively giving a double portion to Joseph. In doing this, Jacob is bypassing Reuben, his true firstborn (Reuben had violated Jacob’s bed).

What do we learn from this?

Joseph married an Egyptian woman, Asenath, daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On. Would these children be considered pagan children? Would the other brothers shun them as outsiders? There has been hostility between Joseph and the other brothers in the past. What will happen once Jacob dies? We don’t know if Jacob was thinking these thoughts, for the text doesn’t tell us. It doesn’t explain Jacob’s motivations. But I suspect it was a combination of honoring Joseph and of explicitly including the sons born of the daughter of the priest of On.

And so Jacob intervenes, explicitly adopting Ephraim and Manasseh so they are counted among the twelve brothers. They too are sons of Israel. (It does make it interesting to see the lists of the twelve tribes of Israel in the rest of scripture as sometimes Levi and Joseph are excluded and Ephraim and Manasseh are included, or some other shuffling is done.)

Where is Christ in this passage?

Because of the work of Jesus Christ, all of God’s elect are adopted into His family. We are counted as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ and children of the Father. Just as Ephraim and Manasseh were adopted and included with the sons of Israel, so too have all God’s elect been adopted, because of the person and work of Jesus Christ.