Before Jacob dies he continues the ritual of blessing his sons. In Genesis 48:20, he includes a blessing to Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, His grandsons. He pronounces a blessing which he says will become a saying in all Israel. It will be a blessing that the Israelites will use throughout the ages. The blessing will be “May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.” The blessing involves two promotions. First, the promotion from grandsons to sons which makes them equal heirs to the father’s estate. Second, in promoting Ephraim, the younger son, over Manasseh, the older son, Jacob makes the least to be the greatest. This may even be seen in God’s favoring Abel over his older brother Cain.
The Cornerstone Bible Commentary says, “Faith recognizes that God’s ways are not man’s ways and God’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts. It had taken Jacob a lifetime to learn this fact. But he did learn it, so now he deliberately blessed the younger over the elder. For four consecutive generations, that was the pattern that was followed: Isaac over Ishmael; Jacob over Esau; Joseph over Reuben; and Ephraim over Manasseh.”1 He declared that Ephraim and Manasseh would be so blessed that their prosperity would become proverbial in the wishing of a blessing upon others.2
For over three millennium Jewish fathers have recited the blessing that Jacob gave to Manasseh and Ephraim. They would lay their hands on their heads and say every Sabbath, “God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh.” If you remember how those two sons of Joseph got their names it helps understand what the blessing means. Manasseh was named such by Joseph because he said “God had made me forget all my troubles.” His name means “Forgotten troubles.” Ephraim means “twice fruitful.” Ephraim became so numerous that the entire northern kingdom was referred to several time in the bible as “Ephraim.” Together the blessing says, “Yesterday’s over, today’s blessings are here to stay and multiply.” Though not born into it physically, In Christ we have been made co-heirs. Romans 8, tells us that we call God, “Abba”, which is Father. We don’t call him Grandpa, or the great force in the sky. We are his children. Romans 8:17 says, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” Just as Christ inherited every spiritual blessing, we will share them. I like to think Jacob’s blessing is now yours and mine in Christ: “May you become like Ephraim and Manasseh.”
1 Allen Ross and John N. Oswalt, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, vol. 1 (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2008), 245.
2 Lee Haines, “The Book of Genesis,” in Genesis-Deuteronomy, vol. 1:1, The Wesleyan Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), 148.