Genesis 48:12

Jacob begins by reciting to Joseph God's grant of the land of Canaan. This set out the family estate, the property he had to leave among his children. He then adopts the sons of Joseph. This was needed to give them the rights of children, since in a great legal sense they were strangers to Abraham. Their mother was an Egyptian. They were a seed, therefore, whom the law would, in its day, have put away. But Jacob adopts them. He takes them into the family.

As the children of Joseph's Gentile wife Asenath, they were in danger of becoming like the Gentiles around them and so forgetting their father's house. Jacob stopped this by adopting the sons.

With the respect of a son, Joseph bowed down before his father. He then presented the boys in order of age, so that Jacob's right hand might rest on the head of the elder, as the custom of those days required.

With the goodness of God filling his soul, Joseph and his two sons pass from his thoughts for the moment. In the presence of God "he bowed himself with his face to the earth." He has reached the highest moment in his spiritual life — he is a worshipper. We know from the Holy Spirit's comment in Hebrews 11 that this was the crowning act of faith in Jacob's life. The scheming, the pushing others out of their place, the selfishness, and the independence that so often spoiled his path were gone. At last faith, dependence, and worship mark Jacob (verse 12).

He is seen as a worshipper, and his staff shows he is a stranger here. With his staff he crossed the Jordan at the start of his wanderings. Now he is on the edge of the grave, and it is still the staff. But how different, how changed the man who leans upon it! The lesson has been learnt. He leans. The one who can worship and bless others must himself be dependent. And can we ever afford to be anything else?

As Jacob he has seen death ending the plans of man. As Israel, the prince with God, he looks beyond death and unfolds the purpose of God (verses 8-11). But Israel's eyes were dim with age, so that he could not see (verse 10). If heavenly things are opening to him, earthly things are fading from him. And so he no longer thinks of the sorrows along the way, but of the goodness of God that had never forsaken him.

Dying, Jacob was stronger in faith than in all the strength of his life, tested and active as it had been. It was then that by faith he blessed each of the sons of Joseph, going beyond what nature would have thought.

All is grace on God's part, and all is faith in the heart of Jacob. The proper work and duty of faith is to accept the decisions of grace, and that is exactly what grace is doing here. Grace adopts the sons of Joseph, who had no title in the flesh, and takes them into the family of Abraham. Grace gives the place and portion of the firstborn... Grace sets the younger of them above the elder. To all this Jacob bows and is obedient.