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Sermon preached on Genesis 48 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/08/2024 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
As we near the end of our sermon series in Genesis, we also near the end of Jacob AKA Israel’s life. Here we see that Israel has grown sick and weak. He needs to gather his strength just to be able to meet with Joseph and his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. While blessing them, Israel both looks both backward and forward. He reflects on God’s past work in his life, while considering the future plans God has for his descendants. Next chapter will continue that as Jacob blesses all his twelve sons. So, as Jacob here gives a testimony of God’s work in his life and leaves a testament to his offspring, we are given an opportunity to think about such matters ourselves. There is a time to look backward in review. And there is a time to look forward to the future. Can you look back and testify to God’s hand in your life and how you’ve sought to live faithfully in response? And have you lived so as to leave a spiritual heritage to those who will come after to you? Israel’s life and legacy gives us an opportunity to think on such things.
Let us begin in our first point to consider how Jacob looks backwards in reviewing his life. His overarching reflection can be found in the blessing he bestows on the boys in verses 12-13. There, we find him acknowledge the one true God. The God who was the God of his forefathers, Abraham and Isaac, has also been his God. If we remember back to the section that focused on Jacob, that was an important truth that Jacob had to long wrestle with until he fully embraced it, that his parents’ God was truly his God too. Then we find in verses 12-13 the description of how God has both shepherded him and redeemed him from evil.
For Jacob to say that God has shepherded him, it to speak of how God has guided him and protected him and cared for him throughout his many days, days that were often full of trouble. As he told Pharoah last chapter, his life has had many evils in it. But Jacob looks back and says that he wasn’t ever alone in those hard times. God was with him every moment to see him safely through. God told him he didn’t need to fear because he would be with him. Jacob testifies to that here.
For Jacob to say that God has also redeemed him from evil is to say that God didn’t just guide him through the evil times, but that he also delivered him through them. Yes, his life may have had many evils, but those were all occasions for God’s redemption, to deliver him from such troubles. Jacob testifies to that as well. Let us note with joy that in terms of this language of redemption, Jacob actually credits that specifically to “the Angel.” Remember that there have been multiple times in Genesis where the Angel of the LORD is mentioned in a way that equates him with God. In other words, Genesis has shown us ways that the one true God has manifested himself to the patriarchs, which they’ve described as this Angel. We’ve suggested this likely is the Second Person of Trinity, God the Son, so revealing himself to God’s people, a Christophany. And as Jacob says, this Divine One has been his redeemer. We are not surprised.
So then, the rest of today’s passage shows him remembering several specific events in his life where God was this shepherd and redeemer. The first one is in verses 3-4 about when God first appeared to him at Bethal, also known as Luz. Remember, that was when he had just deceived his father to steal the blessing from his brother Esau. So, he had greatly sinned against both father and brother. Esau was out to kill him, so he was fleeing the Promised Land to go to Paddan-aram. On the way out of town, God appeared to him with that ladder theophany. There God affirmed that the promises of the Abrahamic covenant would be bestowed upon him, that God would be his God, and that God would protect him and keep him and safely bring him back to the Promised Land. Think of the redemption there. He had just sinned against his father Isaac, but the God of his father Isaac was forgiving him and blessing him with the real blessing he needed. God indeed redeemed Jacob from his own sin there.
Then we see him in verse 7 remember back to the time Rachel died. We know how deeply he loved Rachel. Even after being tricked into marrying her sister, he worked another 7 years to be able to marry her too. But then he finally heads home with his big family, back to the Promised Land, surely with dreams of a glorious life with Rachel there back in Canaan. And she dies on the way, giving birth to Benjamin. Notice how he describes his sorrow over her loss. Then his Rachel’s firstborn son, Joseph, is lost to him. He speaks of that in verse 11, and the sorrow over that. We can remember how for a while there he also so desperately feared losing Benjamin too, supposedly his last son of his union with his beloved Rachel. But do you see the redemption here? For now he has come to see Joseph. And he sees even Joseph’s two sons, reckoning them as his own sons. It’s like his union with Rachel produced actually four sons, not just two. And it is clear in verses 11-12 how much joy this now has brought him, to see Joseph and his sons. So God’s redeeming in this was to bring Jacob joy out of sorrow.
Yet another thing we surely can recognize that Jacob remembers about his life is that God chose to bless him over Esau, even though he was the younger brother. Jacob intentionally places the greater blessing upon Ephraim who was the younger of Manasseh. No real explanation is given for why he did that, but I’m sure we don’t need him to spell it out. God had so blessed him the younger over his older brother Esau. For Jacob to do the same now is surely another testimony of how he remembers how God had so exalted him the younger brother.
So then, Jacob can look back on his life and give glory to God for all the grace he had shown Jacob. Let us turn now to our second point to consider how Jacob looks forward to the future. This is especially seen in how he blesses Ephraim and Manasseh but also in what he says to Joseph. Let us appreciate that his looking forward is not just him having some hopeful thinking about the future for his descendants. No, he has a biblical hope, believing that God has promised certain things to his offspring, and that is what Jacob in faith is looking ahead to. Indeed, Hebrews 11:21 teaches that very point, saying of this passage that, “By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph.”
So, looking ahead in faith, Jacob begins that forward looking in verse 5 by claiming Joseph’s two sons as his own. This is very interesting, in that he explains that they will become as if they were Jacob’s own sons, right alongside Reuben, Simeon, and the rest. This will have the interesting practical effect later on that the twelve tribes of Israel will still have twelve tribal allotments of land, even though the tribe of Levi won’t receive an inheritance of land since they are set apart to serve as priests and workers in the tabernacle. But while this may be a bit strange to name Ephraim and Manasseh as Jacob’s own sons, it does have the practical effect of a creative way to assign the firstborn inheritance rights to Joseph through his two sons. Normally, the family’s inheritance would be divided up into shares based on the number of heirs, but the firstborn would receive a double share. So, in this case, Joseph’s inheritance in the Promised Land will be a double share, because one share will go to Ephraim and another share will Manasseh. That is what Jacob is referring to in verse 6 when he speaks of the inheritance they will receive alongside the other sons of Israel.
Recognize that for Jacob to be talking about the inheritance of land that his sons will have in the Promised Land assumes that they will all one day return to Canaan and take possession of it. Indeed, that is what Jacob tells Joseph will happen in verse 21. Likewise, Jacob there in verse 22 goes on to say that he is bestowing a special inheritance upon Joseph of some land that he somehow acquired by force from the Amorites. We don’t have any record of him acquiring such land other than here, but the land is mentioned later on in John 4:5 when we see the Samaritans inhabiting that land bequeathed here to Joseph. But you see, Jacob has faith that God is going to send his descendants one day back to the Promised Land. The covenant promises include a place for God’s people, and Jacob blesses and bestows an inheritance in faith that God will one day deliver that promise.
So we also see Jacob’s faith for the future in the blessings he gives the two boys. The main blessing there in verses 15-16 focuses around how they will grow into a great multitude of peoples. Let us pause and recognize something here. Up to this point, the covenant promises have been passed down only to one descendant. Abraham passed it on to Isaac. Isaac passed it on to Jacob. Now, there begins a widening as Jacob bestows the covenant upon both of them. They both will together grow into a multitude in fulfillment of this special covenant God had made with their family. Indeed, next chapter, Jacob will go on to bless all twelves of his sons with various blessings, again demonstrating that he believed all of his sons were to receive the covenant promises put upon them. One thing that does is it demonstrates how the covenant promise of a people are really beginning to be realized. For Abraham’ seed to become a multitude of nations it would need to involve more than just one household. Indeed, twelve plus one tribes goes forth from Jacob, becoming the tribal nation of Israel.
Jacob’s blessing on the boys is extended in verse 20. He speaks of how they will become so prosperous, that such prosperity will become proverbially associated with their two tribes. People will be able to say, “May you become blessed like how Ephraim and Manasseh are blessed!” That is how blessed they will be, that they will embody the very definition of blessing so that people will use their name in invoking other blessings. Think of a baseball analogy. You wouldn’t say, “May you be as great of a baseball player as some minor leaguer.” No, you’d say, “May you be as a great of a baseball player as Babe Ruth and Willie Mays!” That’s how blessed Ephraim and Manasseh will be, that they will be the example of greatness.
So then, in looking to the future, we can say that Jacob saw that God’s special covenant promises of a blessed people and a place would be coming true. He especially sees that for Ephraim and Manasseh. Let us now in our third point turn to consider how that future does unfold for them. What I mean is, that we have the rest of the Bible from this point in history where we get see how history did end up unfolding for Ephraim and Manasseh. How do things work out for them? Well, in short we can say there is both some good and some bad. Let’s start with some good.
We can begin by saying that these two, especially Ephraim, will become a leader among the tribes of Israel. That shouldn’t surprise us, since clearly Joseph is already in a leadership position for them, and so his now greatest son Ephraim will continue in his footsteps. When Israel finally returns from Egypt hundreds of years from now, it will be Joshua son of Nun who leads them in conquest of the Promised Land. Joshua becomes be the first leader in the tribal nation of Israel afterwards. And Joshua was an Ephraimite. Similarly, at that time, when Israel finally settles in the Promised Land, the Tabernacle will not be located yet in Jerusalem. No, God’s name and Spirit would come to rest in Shiloh, a town in Ephraim. Even geographically, if you look on a map, the territorial allotments of Ephraim and Manasseh are right in the middle of the nation, very fitting for a tribe of leadership. Throughout the period of the judges, Ephraim plays a very important role in this early history of Israel.
But then we read in 1 Samuel toward the end of the time of judges. There we find the downfall of Israel in Ephriam when the Ark of the Covenant was lost for a time to the Philistines. The Israelites had been engaged in idolatry and worshipping Baal. Yet when they went to battle the Philistines they brought up the Ark from at Shiloh, thinking God would be with them. But God judged their hypocrisy and allowed the Philistines to defeat them and capture the Ark. Psalm 78 comments on that dark time speaking of how God forsook his Tabernacle at Shiloh and rejected the tribe of Joseph in Ephraim. It says that God then gave the leadership over to the tribe of Judah and chose instead King David and Jerusalem for the home of his king and his temple. Ephraim was supposed to be a leader among the tribes, but after centuries of failing leadership and continue falling back into idolatry, God chose to take the leadership from Ephraim and give it to the tribe of Judah.
At first, Ephraim obeyed God in his change of leadership, submitting themselves to the reigns of King David and his son King Solomon. But then, the northern tribes, led by the leadership of the Ephraimite Jeroboam rebelled against the kingdom of David. They further made things even worse by setting up golden calves in Bethel and Dan as alternative worship locations instead of Jerusalem. So, it was Ephraim who led most of the tribes at that time to reject the God-chosen Davidic king and God-chosen place of worship in Jerusalem, even adding idolatry to their sins.
From there, in those latter days of Israel’s history, various prophets prophesied against Ephraim for their sin. Hosea 4:17 speaks of Ephraim being joined to idols. Isaiah 9 speaks of God’s judgment being upon them for the way they devour each other, saying that Manasseh devours Ephraim and Ephraim devours Manasseh and they both are against Judah. Eventually, the sin of Ephraim and all the norther tribes of Israel becomes so bad, that God sends the Assyrians to destroy them and scatter them all over the nations. Interestingly, the Assyrians then brought in other heathen nations to live there. The Assyrians put there an Israelite priest to teach them the way of worshipping the LORD. Presumably there were still some remnant Israelites that were left behind in the land and ultimately intermarried with these Gentile immigrants. The result was the Samaritan people that we see as a distinct group in the New Testament times, who identify with Joseph and Ephraim.
So then, you have the sad prophetic words of Jeremiah 7. There, after the fall of Israel to Assyria, God speaks to the remaining tribe of Judah. God warns them to turn from their sin lest they end up like Ephraim. In Jeremiah 7:14-15, God tells Judah to repent, or he would destroy their house of worship in Jerusalem like he destroyed Shiloh and that he would cast their people out like he cast out all the people of Ephraim. Pause and recognize how far Ephraim and Manasseh had fallen. In today’s passage, Jacob said that Ephraim and Manasseh would be the example of blessing. Jeremiah’s prophecy turns that around and says how they have become the example of cursing. Jeremiah says Judah needs to repent or they will end up so badly judged that they’ll be like Ephraim.
I wanted to think ahead for Ephraim and Manasseh to say that just because they received this great blessing bestowed upon them here, didn’t mean they could expect that blessing without faith in God. Had they continued to trust in God, they would have continued to find this blessing appropriated in their lives. But they rejected God and found that the covenant promises put upon them no longer applied to such apostates. Surely we can take an application today even to our covenant children. We baptize them for a reason. God’s covenant promise has been given to us and to our children. We bless our children and put that testimony and testament upon them when we baptize them. But they will only enjoy those promises by faith. To every covenant child out there, this is call to believe in Jesus. If you do, then you will know all which God has put upon you in your baptisms. You will know the forgiveness of sins and eternal blessed life in the coming glory. This same application applies too for every baptized person. Christ’s name was put on you in your baptism. The covenant of a godly people and an eternal place was named upon you, with abundant blessing upon blessing. But let us each who think we stand take heed lest we fall. This blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh did not make them immune to apostasy. The covenant blessings and promises put on each of us are so very sweet in Jesus. Let us, then, each be diligent to confirm our calling and election by adding to our faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly love, and charity. That we would be in Christ when he returns.
Let me add this important note. If you are one who has been baptized but has turned away from the faith, know the Lord will forgive and restore you, if you will return to him in faith. Indeed, Ephraim is proof of this. The prophet Zechariah (Zech 10) prophesied this for Ephraim, saying that one day God would restore Ephraim, that he would answer them when they call to him. That it would be like as if God hadn’t rejected them, and that Ephraim would become a mighty warrior with glad hearts, them and their children. Indeed, this is seen even beginning to happen in the gospels when Jesus ministered to Samaritans. Whatever remnant of Ephraim was there, Jesus sought to seek and save that which was lost. That’s continued in the book of Acts. Jesus has a heart toward the wayward. So then, likewise, if you are here today and have been walking wayward to God’s call upon your life, may today be a day to come to your senses and return to your Heavenly Father. And for any who have not yet become a part of God’s family, yet today you too can turn to the LORD and find every spiritual blessing in Jesus.
Amen.
Copyright © 2024 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
