What should we learn from the tribe of Ephraim?

No doubt the tribe had received as a cherished tradition, the promise that Ephraim the younger should take precedence over the elder Manasseh. So it would be specially galling to see the initiative taken by the feebler tribe. But God's ways are the opposite of ours, and all excellency and pride of man must be humbled. In fact, Ephraim's precedency is an illustration of this, for he was the younger, and so when he was put over the elder, as Reuben the first-born was displaced, it emphasized God's sovereignty, which exalts the lowly and abases the high.

Another important feature of this is evident in the meaning of the names of these brothers. Manasseh means “forgetting” and Ephraim means “fruitful,” because Joseph was caused to forget the natural blessings of his father's house, then became fruitful in Egypt. But forgetting is negative: fruitfulness is positive, and the positive must take the first place. Jacob says that Manasseh would become great, but Ephraim would be greater than he (v. 19). Both are blessed (v. 20), but Ephraim is set before Manasseh.

Now it is that he can declare God's blessing upon the two sons of Joseph as they are brought before him. Joseph would have had the eldest in the first-born's place; but Jacob blesses the two sons of Joseph according to the purpose of God. Ephraim (fruitfulness) is put before Manasseh (forgetting); that is, the positive side of divine things as more important than the negative side.

The result is very blessed. As a worshipper in the presence of God he learns the mind of God. He acts no longer as nature would dictate, but as God would direct. He crosses his hands "intelligently" (N. Tr.), placing the right hand on the younger and the left hand on the elder (verses 13, 14). Thereupon Jacob blesses Joseph, but does so by blessing his two sons, for the blessing that he pronounces is upon "the lads." He speaks of God according to his experience of God. It is the God that shepherded him all the days of his life — the Angel that had redeemed him from all evil — into whose hands he commends the lads (verses 15, 16). Joseph, allowing his natural thoughts to govern him, and not discerning the sovereignty of God that blesses according to His purpose, protests against Jacob giving preeminence to the younger son. Jacob, however, will not give way to Joseph's natural wishes. He is perfectly aware of the course he is taking. He can say, "I know it, my son, I know it." He is not only acting according to the mind of God, but he is doing so intelligently. His spiritual vision was never brighter than at the moment when his natural vision had become dim with age. Another has said, "There never was a man who saw more brightly than Joseph; but Jacob dying, sees the future with steadier, fuller gaze than the most famous interpreter of dreams and visions since the world began."

In Gen. 48 which follows, we get that one act in his life which is signalized by the Spirit as the act of faith. See Heb. 11:21. But the whole chapter is beautiful. All 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 title in the flesh, 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. And grace gives Joseph, or the adopted firstborn, an earnest of his coming inheritance. To all this Jacob bows and is obedient. In faith he accepts the decisions of grace. Nature may resent this; but Jacob is true to the word of grace committed to him. Joseph was moved when Jacob was setting Ephraim above Manasseh. Jacob feels for him; but he fulfils the word of God committed to him, let nature be surprised or wounded as it may. He does not listen to nature in his son Joseph, as he had listened to it on a like occasion, years and years ago, in his mother Rebecca.*

When we come to Jacob’s sons, we find Reuben, the eldest, set aside, Judah, the lawgiver, not chosen, but Joseph is chosen for the birthright; and when this is seen in the “double” portion of two tribes—Ephraim and Manasseh—it is that Ephraim, the younger, gets a superior blessing to Manasseh, the eider, and Jacob’s crossed hands proclaimed the sovereignty of God.

Ephraim means 'double fruitfulness' which speaks of the double part the sons of Joseph will have due to his birthright (as first born). This double fruitfulness illustrates prosperity of the current family, the church, awaiting the restoration of the family of Israel.

Thus the shadow of the cross falls on all that follows. It transposes the members both of Jacob's and of Joseph's families, rejecting and selecting in a sovereign and final way, which sets aside human hopes and regulations. It selects Ephraim and Judah, and rejects Manasseh, Reuben, and others. If we are surprised as Joseph was, then the reply is, "I know it, my son, I know it." It is absolute, and we must submit whether we understand its action or not. At the same time, if we consider in the light of subsequent events, we shall often find wise reasons for the peculiarity of that action. Manasseh's very name had an infirm suggestion in it, which was quite fulfilled in his half-hearted descendants: when they came to the Jordan, half of them stop short, and half go on: that was characteristic of the tribe, and the embryo of it may have been seen in Manasseh by Jacob, as the embryo of the irresolution of the tribe of Reuben was certainly seen by him in their head.

The Midianites being overcome, Gideon was to meet with another difficulty and one of a different order; i.e., to encounter the opposition of those who rank as his friends, an order of opposition which it requires more wisdom to surmount than even that of acknowledged foes. The manner in which he deals with the two classes of his contending brethren is instructive to us to notice. With the men of Ephraim, (Judges 8) who chide him for not calling them to the battle, he takes the lower place — that of grace, the true, wise and godly position to hold towards those who seek to be conspicuous. Gideon might have replied that himself and the 300 were specially called and chosen of God; but he does not, and leaves the Ephraimites to the satisfaction of that measure of honour which God had put upon them. But towards the men of Succoth and Penuel, who refused to supply bread to the "faint yet pursuing," he acts very differently. They must receive no quarter. Their conduct in refusing sustenance to the 300, when contending with the enemy, was antagonistic to the cause of God and taking the part of traitors to His name and glory. The principle is the same in both dispensations. There are cases which we must meet and deal with in grace; but we are, on the other hand, earnestly to contend for the faith. "I would, (says the apostle) they were even cut off who trouble you." "If any man bring not this doctrine, (i.e., of Christ,) receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed."

The men of Ephraim contended with Gideon. In the time of Deborah they had been in the post of honour (Judges 5: 14), but since then there had been declension, and Gideon, taught of God, had not summoned them; they were fallen to the second rank. This distinction made them jealous of what Jehovah had entrusted to their companions, jealous of the energy of faith and of its results to the others. "Why hast thou served us thus?" (v. 1) Ephraim, preoccupied with his own importance, thinks of himself instead of thinking of God. This is a frequent source of strife between brethren, and such contentions are far more painful and trying than conflict with the world. It is precious to see the man of God pass through this difficulty in the power of the Spirit. The book of Judges gives us three examples of similar contentions: the case of Gideon, that of Jephthah, and that of the eleven tribes against Benjamin. Here trouble was avoided, and a breach prevented. Later on, it was not so.

When altercations arise among Christians, deep humility is their only resource. Gideon had learned this in the school of God, as the preceding chapters relate, so that it was not difficult for him to realize on this occasion how to act. God had made him understand that the courage and strength which he had, did not emanate from himself; and that, in itself, the sword of Gideon was worth as little as a cake of barley bread. And so, in the presence of Ephraim, the servant that Jehovah had used for this great deliverance, took care not to speak of himself. He devoted his attention to what God had done by the hands of his brethren. "What have I done now," said he, "in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?" He took the lowest place and acknowledged the zeal for God which, after all, they had shown to their honour; and the humility of this servant of God is thus the means of removing a great difficulty. Let us act in a similar way, and, when we speak of our brethren, let us enumerate, not their failures, but what God has wrought in them. Can I not admire Christ in my brother when I see how God is dealing with him, breaking him down so that, at all costs, what characterized the Lord may be manifested in Him? Nothing so appeases contention as seeing Christ in others; it is the result of a normal Christian condition in the children ofGod.