"Crossing His Hands..."

December 5, 2016

“Crossing His Hands…”

Blessings folk!

Israel is about to bless Joseph’s sons.
Joseph’s sons that Israel had taken as his…to share his inheritance.

Read carefully.
Watch what occurs.
Watch the reaction of all.
What are the agendas/motivation?
What is God doing?

Gen 48:12-19

Then Joseph took them from his knees, and bowed with his face to the ground.

Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right, and brought them close to him.

But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands, although Manasseh was the firstborn.

He blessed Joseph, and said,
“The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,

The angel who has redeemed me from all evil,
Bless the lads;
And may my name live on in them,
And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
And may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him; and he grasped his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.

Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Place your right hand on his head.”

But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know; he also will become a people and he also will be great. However, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”


We have some hints about the situation.
The sons were somewhat younger…they were on Joseph’s knees.
We will look at the actual blessing later, but did you see how Israel blessed mentioning God and the angel? A hint that the “angel” was God.

Joseph moved the boys from his knees.
Joseph bowed in worship before the Lord.
A time of patriarchal blessing is a significant, holy time before the Most High.

Joseph then precisely placed the boys before Israel.
The eldest, Manasseh, was to receive the blessing of the first-born - a significant thing.

But such was not the heart of God in this instance.
God wanted the blessing to go to Ephraim.

Israel knew this, and therefore, crossed his hands when laid upon the boys.
Joseph did not like this.
He knew what the Lord had said about the first-born.
But, the Lord does as He desires.

Joseph corrected his father, likely thinking that due to dimness of sight, that he was laying hands upon the wrong son.

But, Israel knew exactly what he was doing.
He knew exactly what the Lord was leading in.
“I know my son, I know…”
He understood.
He knew the Law.
He also knew the Lord.
He was following the Lord.

Let us do likewise…especially when it “does not make sense”.