Genesis 48: a focus on the promised land

Read: Genesis 47:28-48:21 

Although the focus of this post is in Chapter 48, the narrative which leads up to Jacob's death begins in Chapter 47.  Jacob says: 

If I have found favour in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness.  Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried'  (Genesis 47:29-30).

Although Jacob had resided in the land of Canaan for many years, he had only come to own a small plot of land in that place.  In Egypt, although foreigners and possibly viewed with suspicion (as Shepherds - a job looked down upon by the Egyptians), Jacob had been able to acquire 'property in the best part of the land' (47:11).  He has escaped the famine, life has the outward appearance of looking secure, but Jacob's heart is still in Canaan.   Why?  Because he trusts in the promises of God.  

As we come to Chapter 48, the end of Jacob's earthly days are near, and Joseph carries out what seems to us a very natural activity - goes to visit his father with his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.  However, what happens next needs a little more digging!

Why does Jacob declare Joseph's sons to be his own?  A first reading in which we overlay our own cultural assumptions renders the act highly presumptuous - imagine grandparents now declaring that their grandchildren belonged to them and not the children's parents?!  However, this is not just a case of relationship, but of legal standing and adoption.  His adoption of Joseph's sons gives them the same status as Jacob's own children, particularly in the matter of inheritance, and being allotted land in Canaan in the future.   First, if we follow from verse 3, we see that this act comes not out of trying to make up for a loss, but flows from blessing.  Jacob is essentially saying: God has blessed me, so I will now pass on that blessing by bringing in two more children to share in my inheritance.  

However, there is more to it that this.  Manasseh and Ephraim have been born in Egypt.  To those around them, it is probable that they would have been associated with the prestige of Joseph, who not only was Egypt's deliverer, but also married to an Egyptian.  They were 'of Egypt'.  It is likely that they would have been materially wealthy. 

Jacob and his family, on the other hand, although welcomed, were foreigners, strangers, did the jobs the Egyptians hated, and had not the prestige and wealth.  But despite this, Jacob had no desire to become Egyptian, because he knew his God, and he knew the promises of his God.  And so he beckons Manasseh and Ephraim to come and cast in their lots with their grandfather's family - bringing them securely into the fold, so that they will be drawn into the inheritance God has promised.

We too, as believers, find ourselves being adopted into God's family in the same way as Manasseh and Ephraim.  Worldly status means little (as demonstrated by the act of Jacob blessing the younger before the elder).  We may or may not have status in the world, but regardless we may have an allegiance to it.  God invites us to transfer our allegiance to him.  In doing so, we become foreigners in this land, but we trust that there is a far greater promise at stake.

The writer of Hebrews sums up what Jacob, along with so many others, lived out:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.  (Hebrews 11:13-16)

How do we live?  Do we live as though this were our home, or as if our home is in the new Canaan - the inheritance that is eternal life through and in Christ?  Let us not get distracted, but look heavenward.

Previous: Genesis 47: "Through you all nations will be blessed" - nation #1

Next: God's Plan Woven throughout