Thurs.’s Devo - The Blessings of Ephraim and Manasseh

Read Gen. 48:8-22 Jacob now turns his attention to Joseph’s two sons and though he can not see well he knows exactly what he is doing… or maybe God knew exactly what he was doing. He kissed and hugged them then proceeded to bless them. Since Manasseh was the older Joseph put him in front of Joseph so that his right hand would be on him. But Jacob crossed his arms and put his left hand on Manasseh. This went against the custom of the right hand being on the first born signifying that he would be the stronger and the leader. When Joseph noticed what his father had done, he tried to correct him explaining why. But Jacob refused to change saying that they would both be great but Ephraim would be greater than Manasseh. Ephraim and Manasseh did become a tribe of Israel making the number of the tribes 13. Levi is sometimes omitted in the counting since they are the priestly tribe and are treated differently. Ephraim means “double fruit” which described its future. The boundaries of the portion of the land assigned to Ephraim are given in Josh 16: 1-10. It included most of what was afterwards called Samaria. It was the centre of all traffic, from north to south, and from Jordan to the sea, and was about 55 miles long and 30 miles wide. It became a very prosperous and prideful tribe. The tabernacle and the ark were placed within its boundaries at Shiloh, where it remained for four hundred years. Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim. Both Ephraim and Manasseh had territory on both sides of the Jordan. Manasseh means “God has caused me to forget”. Half of the tribe wanted to stay on the other side of the Jordan and the other half wanted to cross it. So one side was in the promised land and the other not. The west side was the promised land which was some of the most valuable land in the promise land. It was where Palestine was and springs of water. They were on the west arm of the promised land. It think they are indicative of the church now. Some Christians want to stay on the comfortable side of life and not cross over to the promises of God. To cross over Jordan is to die to self and give everything to God. Lord, may our prayer be the prayer that Joshua prayed, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”.