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"He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel." Psalm 147:19

Text: Genesis 48:1-22

SPECIAL MOMENTS TOGETHER

Israel had a good and long life. He lived to see his grandchildren. He lived to see his favourite son rise to become a powerful minister of Egypt! But there came a time when Israel must go the way of the earth. Joseph was happy to provide for his family, but he had great responsibilities placed on his shoulders. He had to discharge those responsibilities and thus did not live in the land of Goshen with his father and brothers. On hearing of his father’s illness, he rushed to see him with his two sons. At the thought that Joseph had come for a visit,

“Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed.”
GENESIS 48:2

RECALLING THE LORD’S HAND OF BLESSING

What do two people who love each other very much, father and son, talk about when they know that they have precious little time with each other? Jacob wanted to reminisce about the Lord’s hand of blessing on his life.

“God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan
and blessed me, and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful
and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of people,
and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.'”
GENESIS 48:3-4

Perhaps Jacob never found any of his sons terribly interested in his personal history. To a much older man, the past is most precious. To the children, Jacob may seem as if he lived in the past, and they must have felt that they had heard the same story many times over. Joseph must have heard the same story many times too, but he listened once again, as Jacob recalled how God spoke to him. Only a special son would listen to the same story of an aged father again and again without feeling weary.

A SPECIAL TOUCH

But Jacob was not merely remembering the glorious past when God did speak to him and gave him a wonderful word of promise. He was going to add a special touch to a familiar story.

“And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh,
who were born to you in the land of Egypt, are mine;
as Reuben and Simeon,
they shall be mine. Your offspring whom you beget after them
shall be yours; they will be called by the name of their brothers
in their inheritance.”
GENESIS 48:5-6

Israel exercised his special prerogative, which was almost unheard of! He claimed the two sons of Joseph as if they were his own offspring! Epharaim and Manasseh, by the will of Israel, would now be ranked with his other sons when it came to the matter of inheritance of the land of Canaan! How Jacob loved Joseph!