Jacob's Blesses Joseph's Sons
Notes
Transcript
When we last left our story, Jacob and his whole family were living in Egypt.
But now we are approaching the end of Jacob’s life.
So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the length of Jacob’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years. When the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Now if I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers; you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.”
And he said, “I will do as you have said.”
Then he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.
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Jacob is 147 years old.
When you are 147 years old, you should be so sharp.
But now he is reaching the end of his life.
And as many of us would do, he wants to put his affairs in order.
Jacob calls his son Joseph and makes a request of him.
We used to use a hand-shake to confirm a deal.
Today, we use contracts.
Children use things like “pinky-swear”.
But in the ancient near east, the promiser would place his hand under the thigh of the person he was making a promise to.
Brings new meaning to the term “Thigh Master”.
Jacob makes Joseph swear.
Have you noticed how often we don’t trust what people say until the promise that what they are saying is true?
But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
Sometimes I think it is because we have overused and under valued the idea of swearing something.
Sometimes I think it is because we have overused and under valued the idea of swearing something.
Meaning to invoke a divine witness.
What does Jacob want Joseph to do when he dies?
He wants to be buried next to his fathers in Canaan.
This is another thing I am often confused by.
We focus on where the body will lie.
Even though it won’t care once the spirit has left it.
Whether we talk about where “we” would like to spend eternity,
Or just a place for our friends and family to visit “us”.
But that is not where we are.
Think of the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
They were not at their grave-sites.
One was in Abraham’s bosom, the other in Hades.
I think it’s because we focus so much of our lives on the physical part of us.
We act like a body that happens to have a spirit,
Instead of a spirit that has a body.
We obsess about the body in life,
I guess it makes sense to do so in death as well.
Jacob is so obsessed with where his dead body will be buried, he makes Joseph SWEAR to bury him next to his ancestors.
Not just promise, but swear before God.
Now it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, “Indeed your father is sick”; and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And Jacob was told, “Look, your son Joseph is coming to you”; and Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed. Then Jacob said to Joseph: “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of people, and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.’ And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. Your offspring whom you beget after them shall be yours; they will be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. But as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”
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As Jacob nears death, Joseph takes his sons to visit Grandpa.
Jacob recounts that God told him he would be fruitful, and now here he is.
Jacob also “adopts” Joseph’s two sons.
“And now your two sons… are mine; as Reuben and Simeon they shall be mine.”
Nothing here explains why Jacob adopted Joseph’s sons,
But if we think forward a few hundred years, the tribe of Levi is not given a possession in Canaan, because their possession is the tabernacle and its care.
That means there are still twelve tribes, including Ephraim and Manasseh, to divide up the land.
I’m not sure if that is why, it’s just a thought.
But this is why there is no tribe of Joseph in Israel.
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Then Israel saw Joseph’s sons, and said, “Who are these?”
Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place.”
And he said, “Please bring them to me, and I will bless them.” Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, “I had not thought to see your face; but in fact, God has also shown me your offspring!”
So Joseph brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him. Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
Then Israel saw Joseph’s sons, and said, “Who are these?”
Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place.”
And he said, “Please bring them to me, and I will bless them.” Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, “I had not thought to see your face; but in fact, God has also shown me your offspring!”
So Joseph brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him.
These are your grandchildren,
Born here in Egypt.
Jacob thought he had lost Joseph years ago,
He was beyond consolation from the loss.
And now, here he is,
Not only has he gotten to see Joseph again,
But his children.
Joseph brings his sons to their grandfather for a blessing.
As Joseph guides his sons toward his father, he makes sure that the older is at Jacob’s right hand and the younger at his left.
After all, Jacob is pretty much blind.
Tradition says that the older should get the greater blessing,
Just as Esau, rather than Jacob, should have received Issac’s blessing.
But even this verse gives us a clue as to what happens next,
Because the younger is mentioned before the older.
Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, and said:
“God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God who has fed me all my life long to this day,
The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil,
Bless the lads;
Let my name be named upon them,
And the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
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Blind or not, God guides Jacob’s hands.
He places his right hand on the younger Ephraim’s head and his left hand on the elder Manasseh’s.
And he blessed them:
God, who has taken care of me all of my life.
Who has redeemed me from all of my evil.
Bless these lads.
Let my name, and the name of my fathers, be upon them.
Let them grow into a multitude.
Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”
Wait, Dad, you’re doing it wrong!
Joseph tried to force Jacob to do the blessing according to tradition.
But what does Jacob say?
But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”
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I know, my son.
Manasseh will become a great people.
But his younger brother will be greater still.
Sound familiar?
As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
We have our way of doing things,
But that is not always God’s plan.
How far are you willing to fight God to follow you tradition?
So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!’ ” And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
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Jacob predicts that all of Israel will use the names of Ephraim and Manasseh as a blessing.
But the younger will always come first.
Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”
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As Jacob dies, he reminds Joseph of the prophecy.
God will return his people to Canaan.
The land that had been promised to Abraham, Issac and himself.
But Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son, will get a double portion.
Because Jacob has adopted his sons.
Maybe that is why Jacob did that,
Still playing favorites, to the last.
And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days:
Jacob then prophesies over his sons.
I don’t have time to go through each and every one,
But it does make you think, would you be able to prophesy over your children?
And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for him, for such are the days required for those who are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
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At last, Jacob breaths his last and dies.
At last, Jacob breaths his last and dies.
And we see that Joseph takes as much care with his fathers body as his father did.
Joseph had him embalmed and mourned for in Egypt.
He then had a giant procession up to Canaan, with stops for mourning
Finally, Jacob’s sons fulfill their promise, and bury the body in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre.
Now when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come back.’ ”
And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.”
So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great gathering.
Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a deep mourning of the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place. And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.
Jacob got his wish,
His sons took his body to Canaan and buried him in the tomb of his fathers.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Have you thought about the end of your physical life?
If so, what did you focus on?
Estate planning?
Where you would leave your money?
What they would do with your body?
Or did you focus on what God has promised?
Whether your children and their children will follow God?
As we come to the end of the story of Joseph, I think it’s fitting to consider the end of our own.
Will we focus on the physical or the spiritual?
Will we leave something for our children?
Will we still be playing favorites before God?