Seder 42: Leaders from Ephraim and Manasseh

 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).  

Seder 42: Gen 47-48---Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh

 In the last years of Jacob's life, his thoughts turned to the future of his family, which was in temporary exile in Egypt but would one day return to the Promised Land.  Expressing his faith in God's promises, he arranged to be buried with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah at the cave of Machpelah (Gen 47:29-31).  This scene at the end of Gen 47 reminds us of Abraham's conversation with his servant at the beginning of Gen 24. 

Genesis 48 describes a formal blessing ceremony involving Jacob, Joseph, and Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh.  It is natural to compare this scene with the one in Gen 27.  This time there was no deception involved.  Jacob, like Isaac, had reduced physical eyesight, but unlike Isaac, he had clear "spiritual eyesight".

Jacob decided to adopt Joseph's two sons as his own sons, in effect giving Joseph's descendants a "double portion" that traditionally went to a firstborn son (see 1 Chron 5:1-2).  Rachel had died prematurely, and this was a way of increasing her "share" of Israel's future (Gen 48:1-7).  

Initiating the blessing ceremony, Jacob asked for his grandsons to be identified by name (v 8).  This is the meaning of his question, "Who are these?"  We can contrast Gen 48:8 with Gen 27:32, where Isaac discovered that he had been deceived.

There is also a midrash suggesting that Jacob, given prophetic insight, looked into the future in wonderment at what he saw about the future of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and that this motivated him to say, "Who are these?"  Certainly he was given some glimpse of  the future, and this motivated his giving a greater blessing to Ephraim, the younger son, than to the older son Manasseh.

The future of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh included leadership in the apostate northern kingdom of Israel, which was conquered by Assyria in 722 BC and went into exile.  In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on Jan 30, 2021, David Waddle noted that this exile was not the last word on the descendants of Joseph.  Through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, the good shepherd (Gen 48:15; John 10), sins can be forgiven.

In his blessing of his grandsons, Jacob referred to God as "the angel who has redeemed me from all evil (v 16).  There may be a reference here to the occasions when God manifested himself to Jacob in a physical form.

The final verse of Gen 48 has raised questions.  Jacob mentioned that he was granting to Joseph a particular portion (Heb shekem) of land that he had taken "from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow" (v 22).  One possibility is that Jacob was referring to Shechem. A midrash proposes that Jacob also participated in the slaughter at Shechem, although there is no mention of this in Gen 34.  Certainly Jacob bore responsibility for what happened there, even if he wasn't directly involved.  On the other hand, Jacob may have been referring to a different portion of land not previously mentioned in the narrative.

Seder 42: 2 Kings 13---Elisha's Postmortem Miracles

 The great prophet Elisha reached the end of his life shortly after 800 BC.  King Jehoash of Israel (who ruled from about 798-782), visited him and lamented the fact that he would no longer be there to deliver Israel from its enemies.  "My father, my father!  The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" (2 Kings 13:14)  Elisha had made the same declaration years before when Elijah was taken away from him (2 Kings 2:12) 

Jehoash was not a wholehearted follower of the God of Israel; he was a syncretist like previous rulers of the northern kingdom (2 Kings 13:10-13).  But he knew that any victories Israel had been winning over the Syrians had been due to Elisha.  

Even as he reached the end of his life, Elisha was ready to help Israel one more time.  He promised Jehoash that he would defeat the Syrians three times, and Jehoash went on to do so (vv 15-19, 22-25).  Jehoash could have won even more victories if he had followed Elisha's instructions with more enthusiasm (vv 18-19).   Elisha's correction of Jehoash on this point seems arbitrary, but perhaps this correction was intended to urge him to more wholehearted devotion to God.  

After Elisha died he was responsible for yet another miracle.  A dead man was brought back to life when his body touched Elisha's bones (vv 20-21).  This incident is the basis for an archaeological thriller, Don Hoesel's Elisha's Bones,  where an archaeologist is hired to find these life-giving bones.

Seder 42: Psalm 128----Blessing Goes Out Across Time and Space

 Psalm 128 begins with a beatitude:  "Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways!  You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you" (vv 1-2).  

The fear of the Lord leads to wisdom which leads to obedience to God, which leads to blessing of one's family and neighbors.  

Psalm 128 is also a psalm of ascent, associated with pilgrimage to the festivals in Jerusalem.  Those who attend the festivals receive blessing and then spread it to their neighbors when they return home (v 5).  

A benediction at the close of the psalm says, "May you see your children's children!  Peace be upon Israel!" (v 6)  The patriarch Jacob at the end of his life experienced this kind of blessing, a period of peace and prosperity as he was united with his family in Goshen.

Jacob hadn't always experienced such peace.  At an audience with Pharaoh he declared, "Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life" (Gen 47:9).  After deceiving his brother and father, he had gone through a period where he had experienced what it is like to be a victim of deception.

Another beatitude may apply to his experience:  "Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law" (Ps 94:12).  In Jacob's life God's discipline accomplished its purpose.  Jacob learned to trust in God more than in his wits.  He grew from a deceiver into an overcomer.  And he was ultimately blessed.  

Not every season in life is one of peace and prosperity.  But God ultimately does bring those who walk with him into blessing.  As we read in Ps 126:6, "He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing the sheaves with him."