The Life of Joseph - Lesson 39, Continuing the Life of Joseph in Egypt.

 

Genesis 48:17-20,  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. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. 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. 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.

 

Careful Joseph, your desire is crossing the will of God!

The will of God is expressed in the man of God, the man of faith.

In this case the will of God is to have the primary blessing placed on Ephraim, the younger of the two grandchildren.

The will of God is what is primary in the rearing of children, not the fact that one is firstborn and one is second born and so on.

Not the wishes of the child's parents but the will of God is what is important.

In this case the will of Joseph the father is in conflict with the will of God the father for the father is here thinking naturally.

Isn't the firstborn the one on which to bestow privilege?

Shouldn't the older get the prime share of any material or spiritual benefits that Jacob could bestow?

But what is to be important to the man of faith?

Is not the will of God to be important, even for the first born?

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.

So Jacob's faith overcame the will of man, the will of the most powerful man in Egypt.

Jacob was a true prophet, for Ephraim became the greater of the two tribes.

Ephraim became so dominant that, after the ten tribes broke away to set up its rival kingdom, it was Jereboam, an Ephraimite who led the rebellion.

As time passed on, the tribe of Ephraim gave its name to the entire Northern Kingdom.

A Bible commentator from the 1890 era named Marcus Dods wrote of this passage:

We meet with these crossed hands of blessing frequently in Scripture; the younger son blessed above the elder-as was needful, lest grace should become confounded with nature, and the belief gradually grow up in men's minds that natural effects could never be overcome by grace, and that in every respect grace waited upon nature. And these crossed hands we meet still; for how often does God quite reverse our order, and bless most that about which we have had less concern, and seem to put a slight on that which has engrossed our best affection. It is so, often in precisely the way in which Joseph found it so; the son whose youth is most anxiously cared for, to whom the interests of the younger members of the family are sacrificed, and who is commended to God continually to receive His righthand blessing, this son seems neither to receive nor to dispense much blessing; but the younger, less thought of, left to work his own way, is favored by God, and becomes the comfort and support of his parents when the elder has failed of his duty. And in the case of much that we hold dear, the same rule is seen; a pursuit we wish to be successful in we can make little of, and are thrown back continually, while something else into which we have thrown ourselves almost accidentally prospers in our hand and blesses us. Again and again, for years together, we put forward some cherished desire to God's right hand and are displeased, like Joseph, that the hand of greater blessing should pass to some other thing. Does God not know what is oldest with us, what has been longest at our hearts, and is dearest to us? Certainly He does: "I know it, My son, I know it," He answers to all our expostulations. It is not because He does not understand or regard your predilections, your natural and excusable preferences, that He sometimes refuses to gratify your whole desire, and pours upon you blessings of a kind somewhat different from those you most earestly covet. He will give you the whole that Christ hath merited; but for the application and distribution of that grace and blessing you must be content to trust Him. You may be at a loss to know why He does no more to deliver you from some sin, or why He does not make you more successful in your efforts to aid others, or why, while He so liberally prospers you in one part of your condition, you get so much less in another that is far nearer your heart; but God does what He will with His own, and if you do not find in one point the whole blessing and prosperity you think should flow from such a Mediator as you have, you may only conclude that what is lacking there will elsewhere be found more wisely bestowed. And it is not a perpetual encouragement to us that God does not merely crown what nature had successfully begun, that it is not the likely and the naturally good that are most blessed, but that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and the base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are?

And contrary to God's word:

Man hath chosen the wise things of the world to confound the foolish, the strong things of the world to confound the things that are weak, and the lofty things of the world and things which are loved hath man chosen, yea and things which are, to bring to nought things that are not.

But this will bring destruction to man while God's way will bring glory to Himself.

So Joseph is coming from the world's direction when he is displeased (which literally means evil in his sight) by his father's right hand upon the younger son's head.

Joseph, as with most of us, is not thinking straight for he is not thinking God's thoughts but is thinking the thoughts of the natural man.

But Jacob's experiences and his evil days had weaned him from trusting his own strength and intellect and his own traditions of natural man and he had cast himself upon God's strength and wisdom.

Genesis 48:21,22, And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. 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. And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you:

What an important reminder to Joseph and to all of us that our hope is never to be placed in a man.

I die, but God. I die, but God.

Subtract every man but God is always left.

In whom then should a man trust?

That which is always left and never passes away.

Joseph, your father is about to die and leave you to God in whom you are to trust.

God will always lead in a way that that which we trust in, will eventually leave us and we will be left alone to solely trust in him.

Watch through your life and see that I'm right in this.

He even takes away our youth in which so many trust.

But that too has wings and we are eventually left with no strength.

But Jacob also reminds Joseph that Egypt is not to be the destiny of Israel.

Jacob tells Joseph that God will again bring you unto the land of your fathers.

This is speaking of the nation of Israel, not just the man Joseph.

Joseph had and will do his part to keep his family in a separated condition so that God can have his will in the matter and in 400 years fulfill Jacob's words.

Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. 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.

This last sentence almost appears as if if were being said by God, for it appears to belong to a future time.

Jacob confirms the double portion of inheritance to Joseph by the adoption of his sons but he says he took the double portion out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow.

He appears to be speaking as the whole body of Israelites as they will be going to claim the promised land from the Amorite.

But in a higher sense he is speaking as God would speak because it was God who will take the land out of the hand of the Amorite in fulfillment of his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.