The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Joseph's second son is born in Egypt, the land where he was sold as a slave and later thrown in prison. The name he gives the boy raises two questions: how can a place of suffering become a place of fruit, and what does it show us about Christ?
The Meaning of the Name
Joseph names both sons out of his own experience, and the two names work as a pair. One looks back at what he left behind. The other looks at what God produced.
F. B. HoleThe names of the sons are significant. Manasseh means "Forgetting," and Ephraim means "Fruitful." The elder's name was negative in what it marked. It recalled that he had been cut off from all his old family ties, and from the hard work and sorrow of his early years. The younger's name had a more positive meaning. It marked the fruitfulness that came out of his earlier afflictions.
Fruit in the Place of Affliction
Joseph does not say God made him fruitful after the affliction ended. The fruit came in the very land where he suffered. Commentators apply the same pattern to the Christian.
L. M. GrantEphraim means "fruitful," for only in new creation is there true fruitfulness for God. Even in the land of Joseph's affliction God had made him fruitful. So today, the Christian should expect affliction. But he already belongs to the new creation, and so he is fitted to bear fruit for God.
What Produced the Fruit
Joseph's road to this moment ran through a pit and a prison. One writer notes that neither name could exist without that road. The same principle holds for us.
W. T. TurpinIt required both the pit and the prison to develop and mature this testimony of Joseph. And is it not so with His saints now? Can there be either forgetting or fruitfulness, unless death is really at work in us? Is it not as we carry the dying of Jesus in our body, and are always handed over to death for His sake, that His life is shown? … To His death we owe everything. By it He has set us free from the moral pit and prison where we were hopelessly ruined.
Christ Rejected, Christ Fruitful
Commentators read Joseph as a picture of Christ. His brothers turned against him, and while he is still cut off from them he gains a family and a harvest in a foreign land.
Hamilton SmithRejected by his brothers, his path had been one of suffering and toil, but Joseph has his great reward and becomes fruitful in the land of his affliction. Nor is it otherwise with Christ. His ancient people may despise and reject Him. They may count Him among the transgressors. But in the day of His rejection, when His soul is made an offering for sin, then "He shall see His offspring," yes, "Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied." … The time when He is "forgotten" by Israel is the time when He gathers fruit among the Gentiles.
Who the Fruit Is
If Joseph pictures Christ, the sons born to him in Egypt are more than a family detail. They stand for the people gathered to Christ while He is rejected.
C. KnappJoseph's two sons clearly stand for the individuals who make up the Church of God today, just as Asenath their mother represents the Church as a whole. … The second son he names Ephraim, fruitful. … "Behold," says Christ, referring to these Ephraims, "I and the children God has given Me." He is, blessed be His name, bringing "many sons to glory," in this the day of His rejection.
Fruitful Where Nothing Helps
Egypt gave Joseph no help for his faith. The believer's calling is the same: bear fruit where everything pulls the other way.
W. T. TurpinWe are left in a world we ought to have nothing in common with, so that we may be fruitful for Christ. And we are left where there is nothing at all to help us. Everything here, even the best of it, draws us away from the only source of fruitfulness and blessing. … to be on earth like a tree turned upside down, the roots in heaven, the branches here.
Summary
- Affliction — Joseph's fruit grew in the same soil as his suffering. God made him fruitful in the land of his affliction, not after he left it.
- Death — The pit and the prison came first. Commentators tie the fruit to death at work in us, so that the life of Jesus shows.
- Christ — The pattern is His. Rejected by His own people, He gathers fruit among the Gentiles during the very time He is forgotten by Israel.
- Children — The fruit has names and faces. Joseph's sons, born in exile, picture those Christ can point to and say, "I and the children God has given me."
- Now — The land of affliction is the Christian's present address. Roots in heaven, branches here — fruitful in a place that offers no help toward it.