Blessings and Blessed to be a Blessing

 Read Genesis 48

Israel was near death.  Joseph wanted to see his father and for his father to see and surely bless his sons.

Israel had to do some catching up with Joseph and tell him about losing his mother, even though Joseph knew that part.

The biggest thing that he had to say was that Joseph’s sons would be counted as his own sons, at least as much as those not born of his wife Rachael. Hundreds of years later, it would not be a tribe of Joseph being apportioned part of the Promised Land, it would be the tribes of his 2 sons Manasseh and Ephraim.

Why was this important? These children were born in Egypt to an Egyptian mother, but they belonged to Israel—both the man named Jacob and the nation that would emerge from Egypt—just as Reuben and Simeon were his sons.

They were part of God’s promise to become a community of peoples.  This whole Father of Many Nations business would be extended to these children of Joseph as if they were Joseph’s own brothers.

Manasseh and Ephraim would be among the 12 tribes to enter the Promised Land centuries down the road.

Israel blessed both boys the same.

Then he blessed Joseph and said,

“May the God before whom my fathers

    Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,

the God who has been my shepherd

    all my life to this day,

the Angel who has delivered me from all harm

    —may he bless these boys.

May they be called by my name

    and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,

and may they increase greatly

    on the earth.”

This was like one blessing for Josepha and his 2 sons. Ephraim the younger would be greater than his older brother.  Jacob also gave a piece of land in Samaria to Joseph.  What land?

That around Sychar where much, much later Jesus would meet a Samaritan woman at a well he had dug.

There is a bunch of history and blessing and prophecy and some geography in this one chapter along with a little disagreement between Jacob and Joseph.

So, what do we take home from all this?

There are 10 more brothers to bless for one thing.  That’s coming.

Israel is near death.

Joseph’s brothers soon won’t have Dad around to protect them from any retaliation that Joseph might want to take again them.

Those are good but how about we turn back the clock to where this all began.  God blessed Abram to be a blessing.  Those blessings would come mostly to his descendants. 

These descendants would be given an identity with a sign in the flesh.  They would be given directives from God.  They would be given a land promised to them.

The Messiah would come through these descendants.

That’s the history and prophecy, but the lesson that we should think on this week is that as followers of Jesus, we too are blessed to be a blessing.

We as believers in Christ Jesus are grafted into not Moses but Abraham. We are blessed to be a blessing.

In the next service we will talk more about what that might involve, but for now, just think on these words.

Blessed to be a blessing.

This message is short and sweet, almost a mission statement in itself.

We are blessed to be a blessing!

And in keeping with what we started last week, let’s conclude with a blessing.

“The Lord bless you

    and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you

    and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you

    and give you peace.”’

 

Amen.