Fri.’s Devo - Jacob Blesses His Children

Read Gen. 48:1-49:33, Matt. 15:29-16:12, Ps. 20:1-9, Pr. 4:20-27 Before Jacob died, Joseph wanted Jacob to give a special blessing to his sons. Jacob adopted Ephraim and Manasseh as his own, thus making them named with the tribes of Israel. He blessed the second born above the first which is a picture of our second birth. The first time we are born of the flesh which would be Manasseh. Manasseh means “causing to forget”. But the second time we are born of the spirit into a brand new life which was represented by Ephraim which means “double fruitful”. God will cause us to forget that first life once we have become born again, and then we will become doubly fruitful. Manasseh was prophesied to be a people, but Ephraim - a group of nations. Then Jacob called all his sons in to tell them what would happen to them in the last days. I wouldn’t begin to try to decipher each one of these prophesies….I’ll leave that to you, but when he got to Joseph’s it was like he opened a new book. Joseph was the picture of Jesus and his word was full of wonderful blessings. The last was Benjamin who was the picture of the Church. We will prey like a wolf in the morning and divide the spoil at night. Which means to me that we will crush Satan under our feet and get back everything he steals from us. In Matthew, the disciples are taught a lesson about not receiving false doctrine which was the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. God, we bless and praise you! You are the God who gives us the desire of our heart and makes all our plans succeed.