Jacob does something in today's passage that reminds us of what the Lord does when He adopts us into His family through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In yesterday's passage Jacob knew his time on the earth was growing short. He secured a promise from Joseph to bury him in his family's tomb in the cave of Machpelah. Today Jacob's health takes a turn for the worse and he adopts the two sons of Joseph as his own. We will see as we go through our passage today why Jacob does such a thing.
"Some time later Joseph was told, 'Your father is ill.' So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. When Jacob was told, 'Your son Joseph has come to you,' Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed." (Genesis 48:1-2) I believe Joseph takes his sons with him in case this is it---in case his father is dying today. If that's so, then it will be his sons' last opportunity to see their grandfather. These sons are probably young men by now since they were born before Joseph's family came from Canaan and Jacob will live a total of seventeen years in Egypt. Jacob is still alive right now, so we can't be certain how long he's been in Egypt so far, but Joseph's sons are likely in their late teens to early twenties.
"Jacob said to Joseph, 'God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there He blessed me 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.'" (Genesis 48:3-4) Luz is the place Jacob renamed "Bethel", meaning "house of God", because the Lord met with him there. God has kept His promise to Jacob by making him and his family fruitful and by making them a community of peoples. Jacob believes the Lord will keep the remainder of the promise; He will give the land of Canaan to Jacob's descendants. Jacob and all his descendants may be in Egypt right now, and Jacob knows he's going to die there and he knows Joseph will spend the rest of his life there and die there, but by faith in the Lord he believes his family won't stay there. They will inherit the land of Canaan just as the Lord said. Jacob doesn't know when and he doesn't know how, but he believes the Lord will do what He said He would do.
"'Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.'" (Genesis 48:5) We will find no "tribe of Joseph" mentioned in the Bible. His family line is always going to be referred to as coming from either Ephraim or Manasseh. Joseph is going to die and be buried in Egypt. He will never seen Canaan again, but his descendants through his sons will. For this reason Jacob adopts them because their family lines will continue on and inherit the land promised by God.
It's important to note that Jacob mentions the two sons of Joseph in the opposite order from which they were born. Manasseh is the firstborn but Jacob names Ephraim first. When we get to tomorrow's passage we will look further into this matter. Just as the Lord chose Jacob before his birth to be the family leader instead of his older brother Esau, the Lord has chosen Ephraim to have the preeminence over his older brother Manasseh.
If Joseph should father any more children in Egypt, those children will not be adopted by Jacob but will still have Joseph's name on their birth certificates, so to speak. Jacob says, "'Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers.'" (Genesis 48:6)
What is Jacob doing? He's doing something the Lord does when He adopts us into His family. At one time we were not His children. We were living in sin and rebellion. We didn't acknowledge Him as the Lord of our lives and we didn't show Him the honor He deserves. We weren't keeping His laws; in our frail human strength we couldn't fully keep the law even if we'd wanted to. We were not God's "natural" children, so He sent His "natural" Son into the world so that through our faith in Him we can become the sons and daughters of God. "But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the adoption to sonship." (Galatians 4:3-5)
Adoption in the ancient world was irrevocable. A father could disown a natural son but he could never disown an adopted son. Once a man entered into the legal contract of adoption he could never undo it even if he regretted it later. This is why the Bible places so much emphasis on stories of adoption, for God irrevocably adopted us as His children forever. He can never disown us. He wouldn't disown us if He could because He will never want to. Now that we have been redeemed by Christ, there's no reason for the Lord to want to disown us because we have been cleaned up from the inside out by the blood of Christ. Because we allowed Christ to give us a spiritual makeover, the Lord Jesus is proud to call us His brothers and sisters. "Both the One who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters." (Hebrews 2:11) We have been adopted into the family of God and we have received all the rights of natural-born children. Our rights can never be revoked. Our adoption can never be undone. Now that we are the children of God, we share in the same glorious inheritance that will be showered upon the Lord Jesus Christ by God the Father: "We are heirs---heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ." (Romans 8:17)
In today's passage Jacob is declaring the sons of Joseph to be his heirs just as if they were his own natural-born sons. But since they are adopted, their position in Jacob's family is irrevocable. Joseph need never fear that Jacob will disinherit his sons. God does the same thing that we find Jacob doing in today's passage. When we come to God for salvation through faith in what Christ did for us on the cross, we become irrevocably and eternally His. I don't know what your natural parents might have been like or whether you felt fully accepted and loved by them. Maybe they were the type of people who were never pleased with anything and who continually threatened to disown you. Maybe they did disown you. I understand how that might lead you to feel insecure in your relationship with the Lord, but the Lord's character is not like your parents' character. When He makes a promise, He keeps it. When He says you're His sons and daughters forever, He means it. Your adoption into His family is permanent. His love for you can't be changed. He will always be proud to call you His child. He's so proud of you and so happy to have you in His family that He's going to give you a share of the inheritance He's going to lavish on His perfect and holy Son. What more could He do or say to prove His love for us?
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