I think today is a good time to give you a quick review on how the one tribe of Joseph became the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, neither of which went by Joseph’s name.
So let’s rewind the tape all the way back to Genesis Chapter 48.
The scene that we have is the Patriarch Jacob is now on his deathbed in Egypt and he has called his favorite son Joseph to come over and sit next to him.
Recall that Joseph was the one who rose to become the most powerful man in Egypt second only to Pharaoh.
When Joseph came to his father’s bedside he brought his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh with him.
What happened next is that Jacob ordered Ephraim and Manasseh to come forward and receive the traditional Hebrew blessing.
And it is precisely right here where things get more than a little sticky.
Because although Jacob would go on to perform the traditional Hebrew blessing, he ended up performing it in the most un-traditional way imaginable and…
…in the process also uttered one of the most astonishing prophecies that would…
…affect the Lord’s salvation plan for mankind right up until the new Kingdom would be established with Yeshua as sovereign ruler.
So what exactly happened?
Well, what Jacob did was perform what’s called the cross-handed blessing, but as I just said, how he performed it broke every conceivable rule from a Hebrew or Middle Eastern perspective.
Jacob placed his right hand on the head of Ephraim (the younger of the 2 sons) and he placed his left hand on Manasseh (the older of the 2 sons).
And then what occured next was absolutely mind-blowing!
Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh by making them is OWN children!
And when I say Jacob made Ephraim and Manasseh his own children, I ain’t saying it happened in some metaphorical or symbolic sense.
I’m saying it happened literally homies!
Jacob officially adopted Ephraim and Manasseh away from Joseph.
In order to reassure him, Jacob told Joseph that any future children he sired would be his own but these two (Ephraim and Manasseh) were his.
This must have both shocked and angered Joseph to no end.
FIRST, Joseph had just lost his two sons and in the ancient Middle East having a son was everything.
SECOND, Jacob had given the greater blessing to the 2nd born son (Ephraim) and the lesser blessing to the firstborn (Manasseh).
This was totally unheard of and I imagine that in some circles such an action could have been viewed as blasphemous.
Jacob had broken pretty much every rule in the book.
But interestingly, it was this same tradition that dictated that once a blessing was handed down, there was no way it could be overturned for any reason whatsoever.
With this untraditional cross-handed blessing, Jacob had just changed the future of mankind forever.
What’s the big takeaway here?
It is this: God will do what He needs to do to fulfill His Will for mankind and He doesn’t two hoots if He has to break even the most cherished traditions in the process.
That’s what I love about the God I worship.
He is so freakin’ sovereign!
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