Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 48-50.

I am going to touch on a few things today.  Perhaps I will try to tie my thoughts on them together, but I do not think that I will succeed.  When Joseph brought his two sons to his father Jacob, Jacob made some statements which demonstrated his trust that God would keep His promises.  As part of his blessings on his grandsons, Joseph’s sons, he gives us a message about how we can keep our faith.  As he began speaking to Joseph and his sons, he repeated the promise which God had made to him, and to his descendants, a promise which God had previously made to Abraham and Isaac.  At the end of his blessings on Joseph’s sons, he told Joseph the following, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.”  The translators’ notes tell us that the “you” and “yours” in that quote were plural in Hebrew, which means that Jacob was talking about Joseph and his brothers (and their descendants).  In the middle of this discussion, Jacob says something which is a message for Joseph about why he should trust God’s promises.  Jacob tells Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.”  When he says that Jacob is giving an example of where God had previously done a good for him that God had not even promised, so Joseph can have faith that God will do that which He had promised to Jacob.  When we struggle with our faith, we should remind ourselves about all of the good which God has already done for us.  Actually, we should regularly remind ourselves of the good which God has done for us.  As we do so, our faith will be strengthened.

I was going to write a bit about Jacob’s prophecy concerning his sons, but I am going to skip over that because I want to wrap up with what Joseph said to his brothers after Jacob’s death.  After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers were afraid that now Joseph would extract his revenge for what they had done to them.  When his brothers threw themselves upon his mercy, Joseph told them not to be ridiculous.  He would not put himself in the place of God.  While his brothers had intended him harm, the result of their action was greater good than he could have ever hoped for if they did not commit the crime against him (I was going to say “greater good than he have ever dreamed of, but then I realized that he HAD dreamed of it).  When we think that others have done us wrong, we should remember what Joseph said here.  They may have meant to harm us, but God will use it for our good.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 48-50.

Despite what Joseph had said when he revealed himself to his brothers they feared that he would seek revenge on them after their father passed away.  So, they sent a message to him claiming that their father had left a last message asking Joseph to forgive his brothers.  I think we learn a lot about Joseph from his reaction to that message: he wept.  He was broken hearted that they still feared him, even after he had reassured them that he saw God’s hand in the actions for which they still felt guilt.  Really, it teaches us an important lesson about forgiveness.  In a way, Joseph never forgave his brothers, because he did not think they had done something for which they needed forgiveness.  Yes, they had acted in a way which caused him suffering, but God had used that suffering to build Joseph up and to put him into a place to save his family.  We should strive to see our lives in a similar manner.  Instead of seeing others doing us wrong, let us see how God uses our trials and troubles to bring good things into our lives.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 48-50.

My thoughts on this passage are scattered, just as they were last year.  First, the obvious explanation for Jacob adopting Ephraim and Manasseh is that by doing so he gave Joseph two shares of his legacy.  This fits Jacob since Joseph was the eldest son of Rachel, the only woman Jacob wanted to marry.  However, it always seems to me like there is more to it than that.  I am not sure that there is, but every time I read this passage I expect to see some meaning there that I have not seen before.  Then we have Jacob’s blessings of his twelve sons.  Many scholars see this as an indication that this was written after the Israelites conquered Canaan.  However, I see this as being Jacob interpreting his sons personalities and predicting how and where their descendants would choose to live.  I also believe God’s Spirit gave Jacob a bit of insight into what was to come for his sons descendants.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 48-50.

I realized as I started writing that my thoughts on today’s passage do not really tie together.  So, I will just write them down as I come to them. I find it interesting that Jacob blessed the second of Joseph’s sons over the first born son, just as his father had blessed him over his elder brother Esau.  I am unaware of any significance to this fact other than that the tribe of Ephraim, the younger of Joseph’s sons, was more prominent in the nation of Ancient Israel than the tribe of Manasseh.  Then, Jacob’s predictions/blessings of his twelve sons seem prescient in a way that might lead one to think they were attributed to Jacob by someone from a later era who knew how things turned out.  Except, that I would expect someone who knew how things turned out in the Israelite settlement of Canaan to mention the connection between the descendants of Levi and the priesthood.  Further in looking at these blessings, the blessing of (or perhaps just prediction about) Judah contains elements which clearly connect to the Gospel accounts.  I cannot help but see the mention of the donkey connecting to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And between the phrase about washing his garments in wine. the blood of grapes connects in my mind to what Jesus said about wine and His blood at the Last Supper.  Additionally, it seems to me that the account of the Egyptian mourning for the death of Jacob and the recording that many officials of Pharaoh’s Court accompanied Jacob’s sons to Canaan for Jacob’s burial represents something which will at some point match up to some archeological record.  Finally, we have Joseph’s deathbed command to his brothers (personally, I suspect that this actually referred to the descendants of his brothers as much as to his actual brothers, but “brothers” was less cumbersome to write).  Joseph both demonstrated his faith in God and provided a “myth” for the descendants of Jacob to rally around.  The way I am using “myth” here I mean a story, which may be true or may be false (in this case I believe it to be true), which provides a basis for a group of people to unite around and for them to have hope when bad times arise.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 48-50.

I am not sure I ever thought about the fact that when Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons he said that Ephraim, the younger of the two, would become the ancestor of a group of nations.  In some ways that is because I am used to God telling Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, so I have just glossed over this.  I am not sure of the significance of this prediction by Jacob. I just wanted to take note of it.

Once again we have Joseph giving us an example to follow.  After Jacob’s death, Joseph’s brothers feared that Joseph would take his revenge mow that their mutual father was no longer with them.  In response, Joseph states the basis for his forgiveness, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…”  We should seek to have a similar attitude towards those who wrong us.  They may have intended it for harm, but God intends it for good.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 48-50.

The description of the death of Jacob shows that the Egyptians of Joseph’s day treated him as if he was royalty.  Perhaps some day a cave will be discovered in the land of Israel which contains the remains of several people, one of whom was embalmed in the Egyptian style.  I suspect that this will not happen, since it is likely that the site which has already been identified as this site is indeed the site where Jacob was buried.  We also see in this passage that Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers was not just for the sake of his father.  This passage strikes home to me because I have siblings who will not speak with each other now that my mother has died.  There is blame to share around, but I wish my family could experience the forgiveness which Joseph and his brothers experienced.