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.”
So, in these acts of Jacob, firstly adopting his grandsons while their parents were still alive and blessing the oldest last becomes a blessing for the future nation of Israel. Note that both acts are countercultural.
My theme today is countering cultural living in unity. The words that follow come from our self-denial material.
There comes a time when we put our differences aside and work, pray and love together. We let go of the things that divide, sometimes obstacles that have impeded our personal and corporate development for years and embrace one another for a God-breathed journey ahead.
When we look at the journey of Joseph, we see that his place in Egypt was not a place that he naturally fitted into, a slave, rescued from prison because of the gifts that God had given him of interpretation he becomes something only because of God’ intervention.
His place as Prime Minister was only possible because of the power his marriage alliance brought, this having been engineered by Pharoah, why because Pharoah understood that Joseph had the Spirit of the Most-High God with him. In both of these acts there was a closing of gaps, of differences that allowed God’s plan for the saving of many to occur.
If there had been no gifts of interpreting of dreams, no marriage. We still have a slave in prison, no Prime Minister who goes onto save many, no future tribes fathered by him.
If Jacob, aka Israel had not adopted Ephraim and Manasseh there would have only been ten tribes holding land in Israel, the map would have looked quite different. When we understand the future splitting of the Kingdom after king Solomon’s death, into Israel and Judah we come to see that Ephriam becomes synonymous with the Kingdom of Israel.
Another important thing historically about Ephriam is that he was the ancestor of a famous bloke by the name of Joshua who led the people of Israel into the promised land, fought a battle at Jerico and the walls....? More about him in the next few weeks.
These actions of Jacob, counter cultural, if not just a bit odd, had historical outcomes, important historical outcomes.
So back to the wee quote from the self-denial material. “There comes a time when we put our differences aside and work, pray and love together. We let go of the things that divide, sometimes obstacles that have impeded our personal and corporate development for years and embrace one another for a God-breathed journey ahead.”
How do we do this, Jacob was in a position where he mandated change, in the world we live in where everyone has their own thought on everything how do we put aside differences, those impeding obstacles and head into the God-breathed journey ahead?
Jesus gives us some firm pointers here: When asked; “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:36-39).
This is counter cultural in our nation to put God first, then to love your neighbour as yourself. The neighbour thing doesn’t mean the people who live on either side of you, if you know someone, they are your neighbour. Those donations that are going on the plate in the self-denial appeal they are going to neighbors in the Developing World, where the need is plentiful. I can guarantee that your donation will make a bigger difference than the thing that you sacrificed to make it, I can because I have seen it happen. Loving God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind means not putting anything before him, people, job, money, personal philosophy or beliefs. He is foremost, at the forefront of your life completely.
Another heads-up Jesus gave us on counter cultural living was this; “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35).
Saint Paul mentions something, a prophetic word, that shows we need to be careful to hold fast to the teachings of scripture, not our thinking but God’s direction. “For God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways.” Paul speaks of where culture is going to go. “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4: 3) The thing here is that there are those who don’t stick to sound doctrine, those who divide the Church because they know better than scripture, they put their own philosophies and beliefs ahead of scripture. To quote me, “If a belief does not align with scripture, it’s not of God.” If our journey together is to be God breathed it must align with this...hold up Bible.
Lots of people struggle with this because it is counter cultural, this is why those in the early church got into a heap of strife with authorities, because they were countercultural, they would not engage in the things those in society were engaging in, their previous life styles because they had been washed clean by the blood of Christ, they wouldn’t worship the rulers of the nations they were resident in, they wouldn’t deny Christ, they were countercultural and shared what they had, they loved one another and accepted the truth of the gospel. They realised that even if they suffered and died for their beliefs that what was meant for evil, God would use for good.
Like Josephs journey, like Jesus' suffering and death, what was meant for evil God meant for good and for the saving of many.
As you go into this week may you put aside those differences, pray and love one another. Letting go of the things that divide, embracing one another for the God-breathed journey ahead.”
