Genesis 48

¹ After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. ² And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you.” Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. ³ And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, ⁴ and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’ ⁵ And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. ⁶ And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. ⁷ As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).” ⁸ When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” ⁹ Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.” ¹⁰ Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. ¹¹ And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also.” ¹² Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. ¹³ And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him. ¹⁴ And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn). ¹⁵ And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, ¹⁶ the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” ¹⁷ When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. ¹⁸ And Joseph said to his father, “Not this way, my father; since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.” ¹⁹ But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.” ²⁰ So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, ‘God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’” Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. ²¹ Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. ²² Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”

It is not uncommon in religious art to see depictions of the great saints of yesteryear holding, looking upon, and contemplating human skulls. This will sound macabre to us, but, to them, it was simply a way of remembering their own mortality and of ordering their lives in such a way so that they could die without regret when that time came. Such practices as contemplating skulls constitute in Christian history what is known as “memento mori, a Latin phrase that means ‘remembrance of death’ or ‘remembrance of mortality.’”[1] Timothy George has written of this earlier contemplation of death.

A Franciscan friar, Richard of Paris, once preached for ten consecutive days, seven hours a day, on the topic of the Last Four Things: death, judgment, heaven, hell.  He delivered his sermons, appropriately enough, in the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents, the most popular burial ground in Paris. Hardly less dramatic was his contemporary, John of Capistrano, who carried a skull into the pulpit and warned his congregations: “Look, and see what remains of all that once pleased you, or that which once led you to sin. The worms have eaten it all.”[2]

That is dramatic, to be sure, and I am certainly not calling us to any sort of morbid preoccupation with death. On the other hand, one wonders if modern people, even modern believers, have perhaps not neglected such memento mori to our own peril. It is interesting that Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann has argued that the last few chapters of Genesis have the virtue of providing modern believers with a model of how to die well.

            These materials may be useful to the listening community of our own time in facing the problem of death. Modernity would rob us of the capacity to face death faithfully. The collapse of tradition and memory, of community and hope, has made death an acutely private crisis for which individual persons lack resources…The power-laden words of religious tradition have been flattened or replaced by one-dimensional profane language. As a result, we have no symbols with which to speak about transcendent meaning related to the reality of death. These materials in 48:1–50:14 indicate how death is faced in this sojourning family which trusts the promise.[3]

In other words, we might say that our chapter, Genesis 48, is a biblical memento mori, a reminder that we will die and a reminder that we should be aware of and shape our lives in light of this fact. Our chapter places us beside Jacob’s deathbed. It is fascinating to see what Jacob does and says here as we approach the end of his life. In fact, I want to argue that Jacob’s behavior reveals two great questions that will be presented to all of us on our deathbeds. These are the only questions that really matter.

The First Deathbed Question: Did I place my faith in God?

Please observe the very first words that Jacob says to Joseph once Joseph comes to him upon hearing that he is ill.

¹ After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. ² And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you.” Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. ³ And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, ⁴ and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’”

The very first words Jacob says to his son Joseph are, “God Almighty…”

Make no mistake: when the time comes and we realize—if we are given the grace of a moment of realization—that it is over, that we are about to stand before our Maker, we will think much of God. We will also think of our families, to be sure, as we will see. But all that will ultimately matter in that moment is the One who ultimately matters.

I do not know if you think much of God, but I can promise you that you will think much of Him when you prepare to meet Him. “God Almighty…” Jacob begins.

And then the next words: “God Almighty appeared to me…” This God of whom Jacob speaks is the revealing God. He “appeared” to Jacob. Jacob had therefore seen the presence of God (properly understood). He knew that this God existed. But there is even more:

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 company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.

Jacob knew God’s name. Jacob knew God’s presence. But Jacob also knew God’s favor.

Here is how we die well: when our walk toward death has been with the Lord of all life, when we can say that the God of heaven and earth has blessed us and has given us His promise and His favor! We are seeing in Jacob’s death a more prolonged expression of that quick reality we saw with Enoch in Genesis 5.

²⁴ Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

Jacob, too, with all of his failures, walked with God, and, in Genesis 48, God was beginning to take him home. Not quite yet, but the process had begun.

It is the walking with God that makes the taking by God a thing of joy!

God is foremost on Jacob’s thoughts! Why? Because Jacob had placed his faith in Him.

To use Baptist terminology, Jacob, on his deathbed, is giving Joseph his testimony!

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 company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.

Do you have a testimony to give? Do you have that inheritance to give to those who will stand by your deathbed? Will you be able to speak of your faith when your friends and family gather around?

The first question we will ask ourselves when we realize that death has come is this: Have I placed my faith in God? Am I ready to meet Him?

The Second Deathbed Question: Did I pass my faith on to others?

The second question arises from the first: Did I pass my faith on to others? We move now in our chapter to Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s children, that is, his grandchildren. It is a fascinating scene to behold!

⁵ And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. ⁶ And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance.

I do want to take a moment and observe what is happening here. In essence, Jacob is adopting Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, as his own. John Walton argues that the end of verse 5 should not be “Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are,” but, “Like Reuben and Simeon they will be to me.” This carries a clearer connotation of what Jacob is doing here and means that Ephraim and Manasseh are “replacements for Reuben and Simeon” and that “they become the firstborn sons of Jacob.”[4] We will see in chapter 49 the hard words that Jacob has to say about Reuben and Simeon. We note too the words of 1 Chronicles 5:

¹ The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the oldest son; ² though Judah became strong among his brothers and a chief came from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph)

So Jacob adopts Joseph’s two sons. He then continues.

⁷ As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).” ⁸ When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” ⁹ Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.” ¹⁰ Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. ¹¹ And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also.” ¹² Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

Joseph is largely blind in his old age and unable to see clearly his grandchildren. You will, I trust, immediately note that we have here a nod back to Jacob’s own father Isaac and his inability to tell clearly who his sons Jacob and Esau really were in Jacob and Rebekah’s deception of him. But this scene is a tender scene. Jacob meets and embraces and kisses his two grandsons. He then expresses his great joy to Joseph at being able to do so! Then Jacob moves to bless the boys.

¹³ And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him. ¹⁴ And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn). ¹⁵ And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, ¹⁶ the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

Jacob blesses the boys. To Joseph’s surprise and against his protest, he places the right hand of blessing on the younger, Ephraim, and the left hand on the older, Manasseh, thereby pronouncing Ephraim the favored son. Here again we have a nod back to the earlier scene with Isaac, Jacob, and Esau. R.R. Reno observes that “Joseph is like Isaac, who also prefers the elder son. And like Isaac, Joseph is outfoxed by Jacob, who crosses his hands to ensure that the younger son receives the greater blessing.”[5] Jacob is understandably prone to the blessing of the younger son!

For our purposes, however, let us simply note that Jacob is intensely concerned with passing on the covenant blessing of God to his two Egyptian-born grandsons. And what a blessing it is!

¹⁵ And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, ¹⁶ the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

Look what Jacob is doing here. He speaks of the covenant promises of God as belonging to his grandfather, Abraham, his father, Isaac, and to himself: “the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day…” Then he pronounces the blessing over the boys: “bless the boys”! He says that the boys are to carry the covenant promises forward: “in them let my name be carried on, and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.” But then he says something at the end of verse 16 that is most interesting: “and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

What is he doing with this last phrase? Robert Alter translates the last phrase of verse 16 to be “let them teem multitudinous in the midst of the earth” and notes that Jacob, after speaking of his own blessing and the blessing of his fathers goes “back still further in the biblical history” to “the promise, or injunction, of fertility from the Creation story.”[6] And indeed he does! He is referencing Genesis 1 and God’s original plan for creation to have life and life abundant!

In other words, here as we approach the end of Genesis Jacob takes us back to the beginning and pronounces the blessing not only of covenant but of creation over his grandchildren! He is concerned that the lives of his children and grandchildren be firmly rooted in the blessings of God, even the original blessings of creation itself! He is concerned that he pass on the faith!

Did I place my faith in God?

Did I pass my faith on to others?

The two questions that will confront us on our deathbeds.

These questions are simply another way of asking this one question: What did I ultimately care about during my life?

I ask you, what matters to you? What matters to you will ultimately be what drives you. Jesus, in Matthew 6:21, says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our lives are driven by our treasures.

Church, what do you treasure above all else? Take a moment and name it. Be honest with yourself? Is it God and making God known? If not, what is it? Do you want to take what you currently treasure above all else to your death with you? Or would you like to change your treasure? Would you like to begin to value other things, different things? Would you like to value God above all else?

In 1722 and 1723, Jonathan Edwards wrote his famous “70 Resolutions” that he determined would govern his life. These are powerful statements that reflect a desire to order life in preparation for death and standing before the Lord. Hear the following seven of his seventy resolutions.

4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God…
5. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
6. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
7. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.
8. Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
9. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trump.
10. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.[7]

May I add a seventy-first resolution?

Resolved to so treasure Jesus that when I see Him face to face introductions will not be necessary.

The days are fleeting. We are moving toward the King of Kings. You will either see Jesus and say, “Praise God, my Savior!” or “Oh no, my Judge!” Either way, you will bow before Him. Take hold of Him while there is yet time. Place your faith in Him today!

 

[1] https://catholicexchange.com/saints-sometimes-pictured-skulls

[2] Timothy George.  Theology of the Reformers.  (Nashville, TN:  Broadman & Holman, Publishers, 1988), p.24.

[3] Walter Brueggemann, Genesis. Interpretation. (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1982), p.358-359.

[4] John H. Walton, Genesis. The NIV Application Commentary. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), p.710.

[5] R.R. Reno, Genesis. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2010), p.286.

[6] Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses. The Hebrew Bible. vol. 1 (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2019), p.191n16.

[7] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-resolutions-of-jonathan-edwards