When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
Joseph watches his father's hands cross over the heads of his two boys. He reaches out to move the right hand back onto Manasseh, the elder. The moment raises a question: who decides who comes first — birth order, or God?
Joseph's Objection
Joseph is not fighting God on purpose. He tries to correct his father because he does not see what Jacob sees.
Hamilton SmithJoseph lets his natural thoughts rule him. He does not see the sovereignty of God, who blesses according to His own purpose. So he objects to Jacob giving first place to the younger son. Jacob, however, will not give way to Joseph's natural wishes. He knows exactly what he is doing. He can say, "I know it, my son, I know it."
Dim Eyes, Clear Faith
Jacob's eyes were too dim to see the boys. Yet here the roles reverse: the old man reads God's mind, and the gifted son misses it.
The Christian's FriendJoseph explained God's ways to Pharaoh, yet here he could not see as clearly as Jacob. To see the way of grace clearly, a person needs a soul trained by experience as well as a spiritual gift. Joseph stands far above his father Jacob, both in gift and in moral worth. But Jacob had been well sifted, and had learnt from experience his need of grace. A father's fondness, the right of the firstborn, and things like that can fill the mind even where there is real gift, and gift from God.
Why Jacob Crossed His Hands
The crossed arms are not a slip by a half-blind man. One commentator reads them as a pattern that shows up everywhere.
The Bible TreasuryJoseph brings Manasseh and Ephraim for his blessing, but the old patriarch crosses his hands, and reverses their order in the succession. The sign of the cross cuts across natural order and human expectation and turns them around. We meet it here, as we meet it everywhere. "My thoughts are not your thoughts," God says. He says this not because God's thoughts are meant to stand apart from ours or against ours, but because His thoughts are right and ours are wrong. We look at the little swirls of water; He sees the whole stream.
Faith Accepts What Grace Decides
Joseph's protest is the one wrong note in a chapter that is otherwise all gift. One commentator lists what grace hands out here, piece by piece.
J. G. BellettAll is grace on God's part, and all is faith in the heart of Jacob. For it is the proper business and duty of faith to accept the decisions of grace, and that is just what grace is doing here. Grace adopts the sons of Joseph, who had no claim of their own by birth, and takes them into the family of Abraham. Grace gives the place and portion of the firstborn, the double portion, as though they were Reuben and Simeon. Grace sets the younger of them above the elder... Nature may resent this; but Jacob is true to the word of grace committed to him.
What the Two Names Mean
The boys' names explain why the order had to change. One name stands for the goal; the other stands for the road that leads there.
F. W. GrantWe find the law of spiritual increase in Joseph, and the name of his son "Ephraim" shows it — "fruitfulness." But the road to fruitfulness runs through "Manasseh" — "forgetfulness." It is the same with the apostle Paul, who wrote, "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead." Manasseh is the firstborn, in fact. But the end is greater than the means, so in the mind of God Ephraim is greater than Manasseh. Nature in us, as in Joseph here, often resists so simple a conclusion.
Jacob's Own Lesson
Years earlier Jacob had worked to get his own dying father's blessing. Now he blesses over a son's objection, and sees what God would have done without his help.
J. G. BellettHe now learns that those whom God blesses will be blessed. His grace does not need the help of human strength, and His promise needs no human stamp of approval... Suppose Jacob really had needed his own dying father's blessing to secure the inheritance God had for him. He now sees, as he sets Ephraim above Manasseh despite Joseph, that God could and would have brought that about.
Summary
- Nature protests. Joseph's hand moves to correct his father's. That is nature speaking: the claim of the firstborn, felt by a good man who could not see what God was doing.
- Grace decides. Every blessing in this chapter goes to someone with no claim by birth. Faith's whole business is to accept what grace decides.
- The cross reverses. The crossed hands are a sign. God's order cuts across what we expect, not because He is against our thoughts, but because His are right.
- Fruit follows forgetting. Manasseh means forgetting; Ephraim means fruitful. The goal outranks the road to it, so the younger son goes first.
- Faith outsees gift. Jacob's eyes were dim, yet the sifted old man read God's mind. He learned at last that God never needed human help to keep a promise.