Genesis 48, Counter Cultural Living In Unity. Series

Genesis 48: Counter Cultural Living; In Unity.

Well, here we are nearly at the end of Genesis, we have travelled all the way from creation, the fall, the existing garden of Eden. Through to The Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to Joseph in Egypt. His brothers turning up in need due to the famine that the land was encountering. Then their realising that the Prime-Minister of Egypt was the brother that they had sold into slavery. Joseph’s life had been messy, but God was there with him.

Joseph then invited his family over to Egypt to live in Goshen. Last week Cadet Sateki addressed Genesis 46:1-7 his theme being “We can trust God because he is faithful.”

I’m going to end the Genesis series this week, winding things up at chapter 48, with the theme of ‘counter cultural living in unity.’ However, a bit of a heads up on the next couple of chapters and I hope that you are delving into these at home as I won’t be preaching on them. Jacob, aka Israel blesses his sons and spells out their pedigrees to them, he tells them straight what his thoughts on them are, Reuben was in for a particular tongue lashing, their old Dad knew his boys well.

Then Jacob, aka Israel, asks that once he has died, he is buried with Abraham and Isaac. He dies is embalmed as he’s in Egypt and is taken by Joseph and the rest of his sons and is buried with his Father’s at the Cave of Mach-pelah in what would be the City of Hebron.

There was concern among the brothers once again that when their father was dead Joseph would take revenge on them for selling him into slavery, however Joseph told them that what they meant for evil, God meant it for good, to bring many to life through the famine and that they should not fear him. You can tell this was counter-cultural thinking. Then there is an account of Joseph’s death also in Egypt at the age of 110 years, his desire to also be buried in Caanan and his being embalmed after his death and put in a coffin in Egypt. That is how Genesis ends.

Back to chapter 48. We have this description of Joseph heading off to see his old Dad Jacob with his boys Ephraim and Manasseh. Now these two boys Ephraim and Manasseh were Josephs sons with his wife Aseneth. Her father was the priest of ‘On’ a city near modern Cairo.

Who Is Joseph’s Wife?

"Asenath appears in three verses in the Bible: Genesis 41:45, 41:50, and 46:20. Genesis 41:45 reads, “Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, as his wife. Thus Joseph gained authority over the land of Egypt.” [Note that line, “Thus Joseph gained authority over the land of Egypt.” This marriage was a political alliance of sorts, Joseph married with Pharoah’s help into a family that carried enough prestige, enough clout to give him authority beyond what he carried personally. He was now part of Egyptian high society through his marriage to Asenath.]

Genesis 41:50 says, “Before the years of famine came, Joseph had two sons, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.”

Genesis 46:20 reads, “To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.” As the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh, Aseneth becomes a matriarch for two tribes of Israel.

There is a Jewish story about Asenath and Joseph. According to the story of Joseph and Aseneth, Aseneth was a paradigm of virtue and grace." ( Who Is Joseph’s Wife in the Bible? Who Is Aseneth? - Biblical Archaeology Society)

So, Joseph, son of Jacob, aka Israel, marries an Egyptian woman, has two son’s with her and these two son’s become tribes of Israel. Jacob's own words, “And Jacob said to Joseph, “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.’ 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. And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. (Genesis 48:3-6)

So, what we have here is Grandad Jacob aka Israel adopting his grandsons, well these two of Joseph’s any way. The interesting thing here is that he took them as his own, with equal rights to his other sons, the men who would head the other tribes. These two men, these founders of tribes would impact the nation of Israel as much as any other. However, Jacob was not finished, and the chapter has another account of the inheritance blessing for these boys. What is it? Jacob blesses the youngest first, Ephriam, youngest of the two receives the blessing from the right hand. Manasseh the oldest receives the blessing from the left hand. The blessing was that they would grow into a multitude, when Joseph was displeased at what occured the answer given by Grandad Israel was that the “younger brother shall be greater than [the older].” “So, he blessed them that day, saying, ‘By you Israel shall pronounce blessings, saying, ‘God make you as Ephriam and as Manasseh.”