Joseph’s Birthright
Genesis 48:1-22
May 3, 2015
This morning we move into the final section of the book of Genesis.
Moses identifies it for us in verse 1
By saying, “Now it came about after these things…”
We just covered a 22 year period in which the plan of God was revealed.
We saw Joseph sold into slavery for the deliverance of his people.
We saw that plan hatched and we saw it carried through to completion.
Israel is now in Egypt and is safe.
At this point Jacob has lived in Egypt for 17 years.
Even the famine is long forgotten at this point.
Israel has settled in.
Moses now takes us to the final section,
And it is one that we could easily call, “Beyond Egypt”
That seems to really be the focus.
It was certainly the focus we saw last week with Jacob.
Genesis 47:29-31 “When the time for Israel to die drew near, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Please, if I have found favor in your sight, place now your hand under my thigh and deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but when I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” And he said, “I will do as you have said.” He said, “Swear to me.” So he swore to him. Then Israel bowed in worship at the head of the bed.”
We learned last week that regardless of how good Egypt might have been,
EGYPT WAS NOT HOME.
Jacob would die in Egypt,
But he refused to allow his family to fully settle there.
It was important to him that they merely saw themselves
As strangers passing through.
And Jacob is still on that task.
Moses is using Jacob’s focus as a motivator
To keep his congregation focused on the prize.
SO THIS MORNING we find Jacob near death,
And we have that very intimate scene
Of a son sitting near the bedside of his dying father.
(1-2) “Now it came about after these things that Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is sick.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him. When it was told to Jacob, “Behold, your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel collected his strength and sat up in the bed.”
First Jacob will talk with Joseph and then Jacob will call in the rest of his sons.
The conversations here are of the utmost importance.
There is no room for small talk.
It is time to get serious and make sure everyone understands the situation.
And just as we saw last week,
All that Jacob seems to care about
Is what is going to happen “AFTER EGYPT”
He knows that Egypt (as good as it may presently be) is only temporary.
It is as we read last week:
Hebrews 11:13-16 “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
That is certainly Jacob.
All he is concerned with right now is the inheritance.
And he wants to make sure that his sons are concerned about it too.
We’ll get to the prophecies concerning all the sons next week, but this morning it is simply the conversation between Jacob and Joseph.
And the subject of the conversation is that
Jacob is about to give Joseph the birthright.
You are familiar with this concept.
Remember that the sons were heavily concerned about two things.
• One was the birthright
• The other was the blessing
Jacob had received both from his father Isaac,
And he received them both in a stealthy and conniving manner.
• First he set a trap for Esau regarding food and Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of pea soup.
• Then he dressed up as Esau and tricked Isaac into bestowing the blessing on him.
This morning Jacob is about to bestow the birthright on Joseph.
Incidentally the birthright equaled a double portion of the inheritance.
Now at this point some of you are saying – TIME OUT
You’ve been telling us for the last however many weeks
• That Joseph would not be the next patriarch of the family.
• That that honor was for Judah.
• So how can it be now that Joseph is about to get the birthright?
That is explained in 1 Chronicles 5:1-2
1 Chronicles 5:1-2 “Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; so that he is not enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright. Though Judah prevailed over his brothers, and from him came the leader, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph),”
• Judah would prevail over his brothers (as Jacob will prophesy next week)
• Judah would be the next head of the family
• Judah would be the kingly line
• Judah would be the next patriarch
But Judah would be all of those things
Without the double portion of the inheritance…that would go to Joseph.
And that is what we see here.
Jacob is divvying out the inheritance and Joseph will get his first.
So let’s walk through the text
And then talk a little about receiving the inheritance.
There are three main points.
#1 THE BIRTHRIGHT REVEALED
Genesis 48:3-7
Here we have that delicate scene.
No doubt it was chalked full of emotion.
However, Jacob’s focus couldn’t have been clearer.
He starts by reminding Joseph of the promise.
(3-4) “Then Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession.’”
I hope you can feel the urgency in Jacob’s speech
As he says this to Joseph.
Jacob is not only talking to his son,
He is also talking to the 2nd most powerful man in Egypt.
• Joseph has Egypt by the tail.
• He can have anything he wants.
• It’s all his
But you can feel how important it is to Jacob to make sure that Joseph understands that Canaan (not Egypt) is his inheritance?
It is a reminder again, not to settle for the lesser.
Don’t take what your eyes see, hold out for what God has promised.
Jacob is keeping that inheritance ever before Joseph’s eyes.
And then Jacob begins to reveal that birthright that we are talking about.
(5-6) “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. “But your offspring that have been born after them shall be yours; they shall be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritance.”
I don’t know if Joseph understood the implication here,
But he certainly will by the end of the chapter.
But Jacob just claimed Joseph’s boys.
Jacob took those two boys and made them equals with all of his other sons.
From Jacob’s perspective now, “Ephraim and Manasseh” are his sons
Just as “Reuben and Simeon” are.
They are going to be equal heirs of the inheritance.
That already implies that Joseph is getting a double portion
Since two of his sons get an equal share.
Jacob is revealing his plan for the birthright.
He is going to give it to Joseph.
And then simply comes another verse
That does a wonderful job of revealing Jacob’s mentality.
(7) “Now as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, in the land of Canaan on the journey, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”
This verse admittedly seems a little out of place.
Jacob went from talking about adoption to grieving over Rachel’s death.
What this verse does do is remind us again of Jacob’s perspective.
I think that is simply Jacob’s way of saying,
“I’m about to die, and I’m ready to go.”
Remember what Jacob told Pharaoh when Pharaoh asked him how old he was?
Genesis 47:9 “So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning.”
Jacob said, “Life has been hard”
And Jacob is saying the same thing here.
He is recounting to Joseph one of the greatest hardships he ever experienced.
Jacob had to bury the woman he loved.
It was a sorrow Jacob never fully got over.
And since Jacob is bringing this up on his death bed,
I don’t think it’s a stretch to see this as Jacob saying,
“I’m ready to go.”
This life has nothing but pain for me, I’m ready for my eternal home.
And that is about as honest a scene as we can picture.
• Joseph at Jacob’s bedside
• Jacob tired of the struggle, ready to go home
• Jacob reminding Joseph not to get too comfortable here
• And Jacob revealing who the birthright is going to
It’s what we would expect during this stage of life.
So the birthright revealed
#2 THE BIRTHRIGHT RENDERED
Genesis 48:8-20
At this point Jacob recognizes that Joseph has someone with him,
But because Jacob’s eyes are old and weak he doesn’t know who it is.
But when Joseph reveals that it is his two sons,
Jacob seems to want to get on with it.
Jacob wants to bless those boys and officially make them heirs along with their uncles, so the ceremony commences.
Now, there are several things that occur here.
• Joseph sets those boys before Jacob, and he places them there by their age.
• He puts Manasseh on Jacob’s right and Ephraim on Jacob’s left, so that Jacob can reach out and bless those boys according to their age.
• However Jacob crosses his hands.
• He puts his right hand on the younger boy and his left hand on the older boy.
Now, it wasn’t that one hand was more important than the other,
But the fact that Jacob intentionally crossed his arms
Made the implication crystal clear.
Jacob was putting the younger above the older.
(Again we find the sovereign election of God)
And then he commenced to bless them.
And you have to love the blessing here.
1) THE SOURCE (15-16a)
“He blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, The angel who has redeemed me from all evil…”
You have to understand what is going on here.
Jacob is not blessing these boys, he is asking God to bless them.
I love the way Jacob reveals who God is.
He is: “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked”
That is to say He is the faithful and eternal God.
He does not change and He exists forever.
• He is the faithful God.
• Faithful to my grandfather
• Faithful to my father
• And thus He will be faithful to my ancestors as well
Beyond that Jacob calls Him: “The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,”
And there is a statement that we could definitely camp out on.
It brings clear images of the 23rd Psalm or of Jesus our “Good Shepherd”
But Jacob reiterates that God wasn’t just with his fathers,
GOD WAS WITH HIM.
• It was God who safely led Jacob out of and back into Canaan
• It was God who protected Jacob from Esau
• And it was God who providentially brought him into Egypt
God has guided his life.
And beyond that, He is: “The angel who has redeemed me from all evil”
He sees God as his redeemer.
Of course to redeem means “to buy back”
God wasn’t just a shepherd who kept him out of trouble,
God was a redeemer who paid the debt and bought him back
When Jacob fell into it anyway.
And that is the God Jacob is praying to here.
He is placing his family in the hands of this great God.
If his family is to be blessed,
It will be the Eternal Redeeming Shepherd who will do it.
God is the source of this blessing
2) THE SPECIFICS (16)
“The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; And may my name live on in them, And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; And may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
The specific request is that God would take these boys
And raise them up to be the next leaders of Israel.
And that God would propagate the nation through them.
He simply is asking God to use them to fulfill His promise.
God has many promises in His word,
And we could pray nothing greater over our children than that
God would use them to bring those promises to fulfillment.
The source, the specifics
3) THE STRANGENESS (17-19)
“When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him; and he grasped his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Place your right hand on his head.” But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know; he also will become a people and he also will be great. However, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”
Well now you know that Joseph wasn’t perfect.
He obviously opened his eyes during Jacob’s prayer
He saw what Jacob had done with his hands, and it clearly bothered him.
He even grabbed Jacob’s hand and tried to set him straight.
That doesn’t mean that Joseph was mad at Jacob, it could simply have been that Joseph knew Jacob was blind and merely thought he had made a mistake.
Either way Joseph sees it as wrong and wishes to correct the situation.
But Jacob corrects him.
Once again we see the sovereign election of God intervene.
Isaac was younger than Ishmael
Jacob was younger than Esau
And now Ephraim is placed above Manasseh.
It is again a reminder that God doesn’t operate
By a scale of human merit, but on a scale of sovereign grace.
It is as we have read several times before concerning Jacob and Esau
Romans 9:11-12 “for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.”
It is the same here.
This is a matter of God’s sovereignty, not man’s worth.
And it seems strange to us, but it perfectly aligns with the plans of God.
4) THE SCOPE (20)
“He blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will pronounce blessing, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh!'” Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.”
There Jacob reveals that not only will Ephraim and Manasseh be blessed,
But God will make them the standard of blessing throughout the nation.
It is tremendous blessing that God will put on these boys.
So we have the birthright revealed, and then the birthright rendered.
#3 THE BIRTHRIGHT REITERATED
Genesis 48:21-22
Just in case Joseph didn’t fully understand what Jacob was doing here,
It is spelled out extremely clearly.
(21-22) “Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers. “I give you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”
Jacob is obviously speaking prophetically here,
For he never took any land from anyone by sword.
Jacob is speaking prophetically of the conquest,
And when Israel takes the land,
Then Joseph will get a double portion in it.
Now just for a second, please notice again the resilient faith of Jacob.
He is passing out land as an inheritance that he doesn’t own.
It would be like your dad putting in his will
That he was leaving you half the state of New York.
Obviously Jacob believes the promise.
• He believes the land is his
• He believes God will lead his descendants out
• He believes they will take the land
• And when they do, Joseph (by means of Ephraim and Manasseh) will get a
double share in it.
And so as Jacob lays about to die,
He is continually pushing his boys to focus on the inheritance
And he here gives Joseph the birthright and the double portion.
So we’re obviously talking about the inheritance.
We’re obviously talking about focusing on it over what we see.
But at this point another question arises, and that is
Why you are getting an inheritance at all.
The question I want you to consider at this point is:
WHY JOSEPH?
Why did Joseph get the double portion?
NOW I KNOW THE TEMPTATION.
You want to say – he deserved it because he was faithful.
But if you are going to answer – “Because of his faithfulness”
Then you have answer why he didn’t become the next patriarch as well.
If it’s a matter of worth or merit or what they deserve,
• Then sure we’d say Joseph deserved the birthright.
• We’d also say he deserved the blessing,
• And we’d say he deserved to create the kingly line.
But we aren’t operating on merit or what people deserve here.
One thing we have clearly seen is that human merit, or what we thought they deserved has not played a part in any of this yet.
Isaac didn’t deserve more than Ishmael
Jacob didn’t deserve more than Esau
Ephraim didn’t deserve more than Manasseh
Don’t fall into that trap now and say Joseph is getting what he deserves.
GOD HASN’T OPERATED IN THAT REGARD YET.
Well, if that isn’t it,
Then why are Joseph’s descendants getting a double portion?
And this may not seem like a big deal to you,
But I promise you it was a big deal to Moses’ congregation.
They were about to enter Canaan.
They were about to divvy up the Promised Land.
And don’t you thank that someone from that congregation wondered why Joseph gets a double share and the other brothers only get 1?
Don’t you think the question came up?
Well if this issue doesn’t interest you…
Think about it in your own life.
Ever wonder why some Christians get blessed with more earthly prosperity than other Christians?
Why is it that some seem to hit the jackpot in the way of gifts and abilities and even finances, while others seem to be scraping the bottom of the barrel?
Did they get the double portion because they were more faithful?
And of course you know the answer to those questions is “NO”
Well, that’s the answer to the Joseph question too.
He didn’t get the birthright because he was more faithful.
He received the birthright because God in His sovereignty
Determined for it to be that way.
You and I must understand that in regard to the blessings and gifts
And even in regard to the inheritance,
That if it was a matter of merit, none of us would get any of it.
I want to take you to a passage in the New Testament
That illustrates what I am talking about here.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 19
If you look at verse 16 you recognize that this is the story of the Rich Young Ruler
And of course we know about how he makes the opposite decision
Of what Jacob would recommend.
The Rich Young Ruler decides to keep his earthly riches
Instead of the eternal one and he goes away sad.
This decision prompts the disciples
To question if they have made the right decision.
(READ MATTHEW 19:27-29)
So Jesus tells them that they made the right decision
To choose the eternal inheritance over the earthly one.
However, then Jesus makes another statement:
(19:30) “But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.”
Well that’s a strange statement.
What did Jesus mean by that?
Well, to answer the question Jesus gives a parable.
READ: MATTHEW 20:1-16
Verse 16 is your clue that this entire parable is meant to explain to you what Jesus meant by the fact that the last would be first and the first last.
The parable is not hard to understand.
We have a group of men waiting to work.
• Some get hired at sun up
• Some get hired at 9am
• Some get hired at noon
• Some get hired at 5pm
• And then the work day was over at 6pm
And when they come to the end of the work day,
The land owner lines them up and pays them all the same amount.
And you can already hear the murmuring.
That’s not fair
They didn’t deserve it
Specifically they say that those who only worked an hour should not have been made equal with those who worked all day.
THEY DON’T LIKE THAT THE REWARD (the inheritance)
WASN’T PASSED OUT ACCORDING TO WORTH OR MERIT.
But notice the answer:
(13-16) “But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? ‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ “So the last shall be first, and the first last.”
So let’s talk again about why Joseph got the birthright.
See, the temptation is to say that
He received it because he deserved it the most.
But be careful, thinking like that
Will lead you right down the path of the prosperity gospel
And it will put you in the group of those
Who end up grumbling at the land owner.
The reality is that Joseph received the birthright
Because God chose to be merciful to him.
None of those boys deserved any of the land.
Certainly none of them deserved a double portion.
But God most certainly can do what He wishes with what is His own.
WHAT DO I WANT YOU TO SEE HERE?
First – that there is an inheritance beyond what you see here.
Second – that you should seek that inheritance over and above this world
Third – that you don’t deserve it, and it is purely the grace of God that you have one at all.
This mentality will cause you to serve God out of gratitude,
And not just so you can get something from Him.
Joseph wasn’t supposed to walk away
Feeling like he finally got what he deserved.
Joseph was supposed to walk away feeling grateful.
He was boy number 11 of 12,
He should have never received the birthright.
And that is true for all of us.
When we start assuming how much we deserve from God,
We have obviously missed the point of His amazing grace.
DON’T FORGET (like the landowner) GOD IS MERCIFUL
He hired us all when we didn’t deserve it
He pays us all more than we deserve
And the only response from us
Should be gratitude and an eagerness
To forsake this life to receive God’s great gift!
