Another Blessing Goes to the “Wrong” Son

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Praying a blessing

In today’s Bible reading*, we see another blessing pronounced on a younger son, skipping the older one. A few days ago, I wrote about the importance of passing along a blessing to one’s children. Today, Jacob/Israel pronounces a blessing to Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph recognized that his father’s hands were on the wrong son (in terms of birth order) and asked him to change hands. But Jacob/Israel corrected Joseph, saying that he knew what he was doing; the Manasseh would be a tribe, but Ephraim would be a greater tribe.

Again, we — as Twenty-first Century people living in the Western world — may miss the importance of praying a blessing over our children. Regardless, it is very important. And as we observe — more than once — a father blessing the younger son in the place of the older son, there’s an important lesson for us.

Application

So what is that important lesson? God doesn’t follow our rules. God doesn’t always make sense. But like we saw yesterday, God always has a bigger plan and we must realize that we may not see everything. God may or may not reveal that bigger picture to us, but God is God and I’m not. Neither are you.

If you look at Jesus’ parables of the Kingdom of God, you’ll see that the Kingdom of God doesn’t always look like you would expect it to look; it rarely does. But God always has an ulterior motive: glorifying Himself in all things. Again, He’s God. And He can do what He wants.

* Chapters covered in today’s reading:
Genesis 47
Genesis 48
Genesis 49
Genesis 50

This devotional was originally published on January 20, 2021.


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