Mixed Blessings

Scripture: Genesis 47: 7-10 and Genesis 48

Sermon: Mixed Blessings

Topics: Jacob, Blessing, Irony

Preached: May 18, 2003, pm Woodlawn CRC

Rev. Mike Abma

GENESIS 47: 7-10

Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob, and presented him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. ⁸Pharaoh said to Jacob, ‘How many are the years of your life?’ ⁹Jacob said to Pharaoh, ‘The years of my earthly sojourn are one hundred and thirty; few and hard have been the years of my life. They do not compare with the years of the life of my ancestors during their long sojourn.’ ¹⁰Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

GENESIS 48

After this Joseph was told, ‘Your father is ill.’ So he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. ²When Jacob was told, ‘Your son Joseph has come to you’, he summoned his strength and sat up in bed. ³And Jacob said to Joseph, ‘God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and he blessed me, ⁴and said to me, “I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers; I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your offspring after you for a perpetual holding.” ⁵Therefore your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are now mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are. ⁶As for the offspring born to you after them, they shall be yours. They shall be recorded under the names of their brothers with regard to their inheritance. ⁷For when I came from Paddan, Rachel, alas, died in the land of Canaan on the way, while there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath’ (that is, Bethlehem).

8 When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, ‘Who are these?’ ⁹Joseph said to his father, ‘They are my sons, whom God has given me here.’ And he said, ‘Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.’ ¹⁰Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, and he could not see well. So Joseph brought them near him; and he kissed them and embraced them. ¹¹Israel said to Joseph, ‘I did not expect to see your face; and here God has let me see your children also.’ ¹²Then Joseph removed them from his father’s knees,and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. ¹³Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand towards Israel’s left, and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel’s right, and brought them near him. ¹⁴But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn. ¹⁵He blessed Joseph, and said,

‘The God before whom my ancestors Abraham and Isaac walked,

the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, 

¹⁶ the angel who has redeemed me from all harm, bless the boys;

and in them let my name be perpetuated, and the name of my ancestors Abraham and Isaac;

and let them grow into a multitude on the earth.’

17 When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. ¹⁸Joseph said to his father, ‘Not so, my father! Since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.’ ¹⁹But his father refused, and said, ‘I know, my son, I know; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.’ ²⁰So he blessed them that day, saying,

‘By you Israel will invoke blessings, saying,

“God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.” ’

So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. ²¹Then Israel said to Joseph, ‘I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your ancestors. ²²I now give to you one portion more than to your brothers, the portion that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.’

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

JACOB’S MOVE TO EGYPT

By the time Jacob starts on his way to Egypt, he is already an old man. His children are clearly protective of him. They want the best for him. In fact, while in Egypt Judah is willing to exchange his life for the life of his younger step-brother Benjamin out of love and respect for his father. So when the brothers come with the news that Joseph is alive in Egypt, they would not have asked that the whole clan move to Egypt unless it was a matter of life and death. To stay in Canaan would be death. To go to Egypt is life.

On the one hand Jacob is thrilled that Joseph, his long-lost son, is alive. But on the other hand, his is not thrilled to have to leave the land of promise and go to Egypt, a foreign and strange land. It takes a vision from God to convince Jacob that going to Egypt is going to be okay.

What we should realize is that the Egyptians were probably not exactly thrilled that this little clan of sheep-herders was moving into their neighborhood. There is a revealing verse at the end of Genesis 46 that states that the Egyptians found shepherds detestable – in other words, backwards, uncivilized, rough and barbaric.

Remember that old television show, The Beverly Hillbillies? Well, Jacob is pretty close to Jed Clampett. Instead of striking oil, they had struck a long-lost brother and prince. So they end up moving the whole sheep-herding clan of Canaan hillbillies to the center of the civilized world.

JACOB BEFORE PHARAOH

This makes Jacob’s appearance before Pharaoh all the more ironic. Here is Pharaoh, the head of the Egyptian empire, meeting Jacob, an aging and wandering sheep-herder from the sticks. But it is Jacob who blesses Pharaoh when they meet. Jacob blesses Pharaoh both when they meet and when they part. Jacob, who stands in the line of Abraham, and Isaac – the blessed ones of God — is the one who gives the blessing.

And what does it mean to be one of the blessed ones of God?

Jacob says,

“The years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty.

But my years have been few and difficult.”

Few – how is being 130 years old having few years?

And difficult, why does he say difficult?

What Jacob is relating is that although he has been blessed by God,

His life has been full of sacrifice and suffering.

Although he has been rescued and saved many times,

He has been lost and on the edge of ruin often.

Although he has been blessed with flocks and herds,

these herds have needed constant tending.

Although he has been blessed with many children,

his children have given him sorrow and heartache.

Yes, Jacob is blessed by God, a child of the promise, having received the birthright of his father Isaac. But that birthright has come with the weight of responsibility. Life has taught Jacob many things. It has especially taught him the burden of being blessed.

JACOB BEFORE JOSEPH, EPHRAIM & MANASSEH

In the next chapter, Jacob is older yet.

He is nearing death.

When Joseph hears of this, Joseph comes to his dying father with his two sons in tow. Again, we must remember the difference in power: Joseph is a prince in Egypt. He is second in command to Pharaoh. He has engineered not only the survival of his family, but the survival of Egypt, and the consolidation of Pharaoh’s power. And Jacob is a withered old patriarch. He is the resident alien.

Just as with Pharaoh, it is Jacob who does the blessing, not Joseph.

Though Joseph has protected his father, provided for him, and catered to his every

need, it is Jacob who does the blessing.

This is a momentous time, almost a sacramental time.

Joseph has an Egyptian wife. He has Egyptian-raised children.

Now Joseph is here to ensure that his Egyptian-born sons receive the blessing of the patriarch, Jacob. Joseph is here to receive a double-blessing through his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim.

The first step is for Jacob to adopt these sons of Joseph as his own sons.

So Jacob says, “Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine (my adopted sons). Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.”

As adopted sons, Ephraim and Manasseh become children of the promise. Their future is tied to Israel, not Egypt. They may be in Egypt, but they are not of Egypt.

From Joseph’s perspective, everything was going according to plan.

His father would treat his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim as equally as his own first and second son, Reuben and Simeon. Who cares if father Jacob had a “senior moment” and mixed up the names, putting the younger Ephraim first, and the older Manasseh second. By the time the blessing came, Joseph would make sure things were straight.

When Jacob, who was going blind, asked for his two grandsons, now adopted as sons, to be brought to him, Joseph carefully maneuvers Manasseh to Jacob’s right side – the bigger blessing – and Ephraim to Jacob’s left side – the lesser blessing. Even if old dad was getting a tad forgetful, Joseph was going to make sure this went according to plan, his plan.

But Jacob does on odd thing, a curious thing, a thing that does not occur anywhere else in the Bible. Jacob crosses his arms, so that his right arm of power is on Ephraim’s head and his left arm is on Manasseh’s head.

By the conventions of the day, this was a big mistake.

This would be like using the wrong name when baptizing a baby.

You have to imagine Joseph at this moment.

Joseph the administrator. Joseph the organizer. Joseph the controller.

Joseph the one who spent his adult life making sure that things were done

decently and in good order.

Joseph is sure his old dad is making a mistake.

This is not going according to plan.

He is displeased, “Can’t dad get anything right anymore?”

There is a bit of panic on Joseph’s part.

This is too important a moment to mess up.

Drastic action was called for.

So Joseph physically takes old Jacob’s withered and weather-beaten arms and tries to uncross them, to get the right hand on Manasseh’s head and the left on Ephraim’s.

And when he gets resistance, Joseph says, “No, Dad, you are doing it wrong …THIS one is the first-born; put your right hand on his head.”

THE JOSEPH IRONY

Again, it is rather ironic that Joseph, of all people, is so hard-headed about this.

Lately, I’ve heard a number of people refer to God working in a specific way in their life as “it’s a God-thing.” If anyone should be aware of what a God-thing would look like, you think it would be Joseph. Joseph who as a boy had God-given dreams;

Joseph, who interpreted the dreams of bakers and butlers and Pharaohs;

Joseph, who instead of locking up his brothers in a dungeon and throwing away the key, said to them, “Don’t be afraid — you throwing me into a pit, being sold as a slave, ending up in prison, now ending up as Pharaoh’s right-hand man. It has all been a God-thing.”

So you would think that Joseph would recognize a “God-thing” when he saw it.

But he doesn’t.

Joseph, the wise seer, the fabulously successful administrator, the extraordinarily gifted organizer, can only see this as a mistake – Manasseh must be first, Ephraim second.

But Jacob … old frail Jacob is neither too blind, nor too old, nor too confused to understand that this is not a mistake. Jacob understands this is a God-thing, God is working through him, he is an instrument of God’s blessing.

THE MEANING OF BLESSING – For Ephraim

But why? Why Ephriam first and Manasseh second?

We don’t know. We are not told.

Why Jacob and not Esau?

Why Abraham and not someone else who lived back then?

Why were Abel’s sacrifices pleasing and not Cain’s?

We aren’t told.

There is a mystery here in terms of why – why did Ephraim the younger receive the greater blessing over Manasseh the older.

But there is less of a mystery in terms of the meaning of this blessing. Contrary to what Joseph might think, when Ephraim receives a greater share of the blessing than Manasseh, it does not mean that Ephraim has just won a full-ride scholarship to Princeton, whereas Manasseh will be going to the Community College.

It is not as if Ephraim will inherit the house, the car, all the financial assets, and Manasseh will get the lawn-mower.

Jacob knows that receiving the blessing isn’t the same as receiving the Midas touch – everything will turn to gold.

No, to receive the blessing carries with it the burden of responsibility.

When God chose and called Abraham, it was for an express purpose:

“I will bless you and make you into a great nation.

I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing …

And so that all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Jacob knows first-hand that being blessed means allowing God to use us as an instrument or conduit of his power and grace.

Jacob also knows first-hand the mixed nature of such a blessing. Yes, Ephraim would become greater than Manasseh but with the greater blessing would come a greater responsibility.

When Jacob places his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it is with the express purpose that the descendants of Ephraim were to have the responsibility of providing leadership to Israel in their obedience to God. Eventually the very name of Ephraim would come to represent the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Although God will continue to love Ephraim dearly, Ephraim will come to disappoint God again and again. Ephraim will rebel against the blessing, refuse the blessing, and will eventually become exiled and then extinct.

THE MEANING OF BLESSING FOR US

So the right hand of God’s blessing was placed on the head of another son of Jacob.

The voice of God said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased.”

This firstborn son was baptized and blessed and sent into the world.

He was sent into the world where he gave until it hurt,

Loved until he bled,

Suffered until he died.

And that is how he was a blessing … a blessing for all the peoples of the earth.

We, the church, are the gathering of those who have been baptized, baptized into the death and resurrection of this other son – the Son of Jacob, the Son of God, Jesus.

Through Christ, we have been adopted as children of God.

Through Christ, we have become heirs of the promise.

Through Christ, we have been blessed, and are reminded of our blessings in the gifts of bread and wine.

But we might ask, “Why me?

Why was I born into a family in which I received the blessing of baptism?

Why was I given the blessing of faith?

Why do I receive the gifts of bread and wine with a grateful heart?

Why am I a member of the church?

Why me?

There are so many in this world who are not baptized, who have not been given the gift of faith, who do not receive the gifts of bread and wine? Why me?

The “Why me” question is one that we will never know a full answer to this side of heaven.

But …. we do know that receiving the blessing comes with a responsibility.

It is the responsibility of being a blessing to the whole world;

It is the task of remaining faithful to the promise;

It is the task of being in the world but not of it;

It is the mission of being a light to shine in the darkness;

It is the mission of being salt to keep things from spoiling;

That is the nature of every blessing.

To receiving the blessing is not an end in itself.

It is a means to an end –

Receiving a blessing, any blessing, every blessing,

is a means to one end

that God’s kingdom comes and that his will is done.

Amen.