In Genesis 34-50 Judah and Joseph emerge as leaders among the sons of Jacob. In future generations, many leaders of Israel would come from those tribes.
This was especially true of Judah, from whose tribe the Davidic dynasty would arise. To a lesser extent this was also true of Joseph's descendants, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
Leaders from the tribes of Joseph included Joshua; judges Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech, and Jephthah; and kings Jeroboam and Ahab. In one chapter in her book Tribal Blueprints, Nechama Price discusses these leaders, exploring what character traits of Joseph might be evident in their lives.
Joseph was often most comfortable in a second-in-command role, managing the affairs of Potiphar, the warden of Pharaoh''s prison, and later Pharaoh. Similarly, Joshua served for forty years as Moses' assistant before taking over leadership of Israel.
Joseph had a healthy amount of ambition that led to his attainment of positions of responsibility. Some of his descendants were also ambitious, sometimes to such an extent that they would go to great lengths to cling to power. Jeroboam comes to mind in this regard. He set up idolatrous worship centers at Dan and Bethel and a new date for Sukkot in order to compete with the Temple at Jerusalem (1 Ki 12).
Jeroboam was also following in the footsteps of Micah, an earlier Ephraimite who wanted to set up his own worship center (Judges 17).
Sadly, there was rivalry between the two tribes of Joseph. Gideon and Jephthah, leaders from the tribe of Manasseh, both had to contend with Ephraimites who wanted a greater military role (Judges 8:1-3; 12:1-7).
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