In the last days of Jacob’s life, he is blessed to have not only lived seventeen years with Joseph, the son believed dead, but he also lived with Joseph’s sons. Jacob is then able to bless Ephraim and Manasseh before his passing. In Genesis 48:20, we read:

“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.” 

For thousands of years this blessing has been pronounced over the sons of a house, but why? (For daughters a different blessing is spoken.) 

Joseph named his sons during two seasons of his life: healing and prosperity. Manasseh comes from a root meaning to forget. Forget what? The pain he has suffered by the hands of his brothers. He wants to forget; by this we note that he has not yet come to a place of forgiveness. Ephraim is from a root meaning fruitful. Joseph had prospered in Egypt. He had a wife, children, and a position of great authority. This he wants to remember. 

 Jacob, however, does not want to bless “the forgetting” over “the fruitfulness,” because it is when we recognize the blessing, the fruitfulness of our lives, that we walk in the healing that allows us to forgive and heal the pain, and to echo Josephs words in our own lives: “And as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Gen. 50:20; cf. Ro. 8:28-29).

 Joseph then demonstrates this deep forgiveness: “Now therefore do not fear; I will sustain you, and your little ones.’ And he comforted them, and spoke kindly unto them” (Gen. 50:21). Joseph demonstrates the strength and forgetfulness of forgiveness by caring for and sustaining the very ones who inflicted harm upon him, and their children. 

In the moment of blessing, Jacob adopted his two grandsons as his own sons, thereby permitting them to be joint-heirs, covenant partners, with his other sons in the Promised Land. Here we see an early type of the “spirit of adoption”, a doctrine developed by the apostle Paul that he uses to give assurance to Gentile believers in Yeshua/Jesus (Ro. 8:15-17). 

When we bless our children, we know that they will have challenges and victories. As parents we would love to protect them from the challenges, and the grief that often results. Still, we know as parents, the blessing that often comes from setbacks and upsets. With this blessing, spoken by Jacob, we are putting fruitfulness over forgetfulness. We are telling our children not to overlook the trails along the way, but to see how the Lord has used them to bring forth fruit in life. 

Placing the hand of blessing upon sons and daughters connects them, even in the midst of a turbulent season, to the heart of their father and mother. It gives the calm assurance of presence, care, direction, love, but most importantly, the reminder that the arms of the Heavenly Father, and earthly parents are there to embrace, comfort, and correct them as they mature in this life. 

Maranatha. Shalom.