Joel M Bradshaw

5And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. 6And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours.–Genesis 48

When you look later on at the lists of the 12 tribes of Israel, there is a notable omission: Joseph. There is no tribe of Joseph. This used to irk me. I mean, as you read Genesis, it is Joseph’s story that stands out. If anyone deserved that honor of carrying out God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it was Joseph. The one who endured so much and accomplished so much.

But you see, Joseph did become a tribe. Greater than that, he became TWO. In our text today, Jacob/Israel proclaimed two things.

1. Two grandsons will get the rank of full sons. Or two sons get their daddy’s position, even while daddy is still living. This would have honored Joseph tremendously, and would have been unique and special. And considering all that transpired, what brother of Joseph was going to complain?

2. Mixed heritage children are just as valued. I don’t know if the two boys looked different than their uncles. They were half Egyptian, after all. But that didn’t matter. Not only were they important, but Jacob considered them now HIS, not anymore Joseph’s. When you later consider the how the Egyptians were going to treat the Israelites, this stands out to me here.

Race and ethnicity don’t even come up in this chapter. I’m having to bring it up. But, it was still there. And it didn’t matter. What later and even current cultures use to divide, Jacob did not. He viewed those two boys as his. No arguments. They were fully equal to Simeon, Judah, Reuben, the rest. It always was God’s plan to have his people be made up of a variety of cultures with him as the constant.

It’s not what divides us that matters. It’s what unites us. And as for Christians, that is Christ, Himself. If only our culture, which loves to divide into groups and get those groups angry at each other, would learn this. The church cannot be that way. Ever. Otherwise, we miss out on Revelation 7…

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)

The world highlights our differences and makes them matter most. We ought to highlight Christ. The one thing in our stories that unites us. Guaranteed. Later Jews would be upset at who they considered to be ‘half-breed’ Samaritans. But not originally. Joseph’s children were considered full sons. That stood out to me this morning.–JMB