The Blessing

Genesis 48 is a chapter of blessing. Jacob, or Israel, has come to the end of his life. Joseph is called to see his father. He brings with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Jacob recounts the promise that God had given to him and to his ancestors. Then he formally includes Joseph’s two sons in the blessing of the nation that God is going to form. In fact, Manasseh and Ephraim will eventually replace Jacob’s own sons, Simeon and Issachar, as heads of two of the 12 tribes that would make up the nation of Israel.

Then Jacob blesses the two sons of Joseph just as his own father had blessed him and his own brother, Esau. Oddly, he blesses the younger with the older son’s blessing. In his own case, Jacob had received the older son's blessing by deceit. In this case, Jacob makes the switch quite deliberately.

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But what sticks out for me today is the blessing itself. How many of us verbally bless our children, or our grandchildren. We might bless them with things, or even with the occasional “well done” or reward for good grades, or whatever. But when do we actually take the time to look into Scripture and find some blessing from the Word that we want to become their blessing? When do we take them aside and put our hands on them and pronounce that blessing on them?

Can we imagine the significance of such an act on an impressionable heart and mind?

In a world where family relationships suffer some serious disconnects, the words, “Bring them to me so I may bless them” (Genesis 48:9, NIV) might have a greater significance that we could ever imagine.