48 Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. Genesis 48
SOME THINGS WON’T WAIT AND WE MUST MAKE TIME FOR THEM OR LOSE THE OPPORTUNITY!
After Jacob had lived for seventeen years in Egypt, now aged 147, his time had come ‘to be gathered to his people’. Genesis 47:28 His original name ‘Jacob, means Deceiver’, but in chapters 48 and 49 at the end of Genesis his last actions are ones of blessing his sons. God had changed him and renamed him Israel after he ‘wrestled with God’ at the brook of Jabbok.
Joseph was the God appointed ruler of Egypt, but he knew he had to seize the opportunity and visit his father to receive his blessing and he took his two sons, Ephraim (younger, stated first) and Manasseh with him. Joseph knew the importance of that blessing for the next generation, even though they may not have understood much at the time.
2 When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed. Genesis 48
Jacob summoned his strength for the meeting with Joseph and his sons. Athletes always gather their strength at the end of a race to sprint across the line. It seems like we always have something extra in reserve to call upon.
Jacob recounted God’s blessings upon his own life and repeated the Covenant Promises Almighty God, El Shaddai, had spoken to him when he fled from Canaan.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me 4 and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I WILL GIVE THIS LAND AS AN EVERLASTING POSSESSION TO YOUR DESCENDANTS AFTER YOU.’ (How greatly this has been opposed by God’s enemy and those sold out to him today)
God has kept and will keep all His promises concerning Jacob and their land.
Jacob established the inheritance of Joseph’s two children born to him in Egypt as his own. They would be blessed and brought into God’s Covenant with all Jacob’s own sons, never to be considered Egyptian, always part of the people of God.
7 As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
Jacob talked of his sorrow at the death of Rachel, Joseph’s own mother and Jacob’s favourite wife. Only Jacob could have told these things to Joseph and perhaps all the years they’d been separated had robbed him of this knowledge.
Take the time to seek your blessing, whether from older family members or from the Lord Himself, you’ll be glad you did. A blessing ordained by God is of great value to us all, a precious inheritance.
The Priestly Blessing
22 The Lord said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
24
“‘“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’
27 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I WILL BLESS THEM.” Numbers 6