Ephraim and Manasseh
Philip du Nard
The remainder of Genesis recounts Joseph's trials and triumphs in Egypt as he advances from slave and prisoner to Prime Minister and his reunion with his family as they also make the eventual move to Egypt.
It was a dramatic reunion that he had with his brothers and father and their families as they remembered him as a youth and came to know him again as Prime Minister of Egypt. What joy this brought to Jacob.
It is also moving to see how gracious and forgiving Joseph was toward his brethren who had mistreated him and caused him so much trouble. Joseph saw the hand of God in his troubles and took this attitude:
"But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them." Gen 50:21
But we will now focus our attention on Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, that were born to him in Egypt.
Joseph's marriage is recorded in Gen. 41:45 and we learn of the birth of his sons in verses 50-52 where we read,
"And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, [said he], hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."
We hear no more of them until chapter 48 in which Joseph is informed that his father Jacob is sick and he takes his two sons with him as he visits father Jacob.
Jacob recalls the promise God made to him years before concerning a multiplicity of seed and the promise of the land and has this to say concerning Ephraim and Manasseh in verses 5-6:
"And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, [are] mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, [and] shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance."
In other words, Jacob is adopting his grandsons and this is why there later came to be a tribe of Ephraim and a tribe of Manasseh even though they were not direct sons of Jacob. In verse 22, Jacob says to Joseph, "I have given thee one portion above thy brethren..." So the purpose in adopting Joseph's two sons would seem to be to give a double blessing to Joseph. Furthermore, if Joseph were to have any more sons which he did not, they seemingly would have constituted the tribe of Joseph. But they would not have been called that but would have been "called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance." That is, the tribe of Joseph would have been attached to either Manasseh or Ephraim.
As the children of Machir, a son of Manasseh "were brought up upon Joseph's knees," Gen 50:23, it has been suggested that this was an adoption by Joseph similar to Jacob adopting Ephraim and Manasseh. The descendants of Machir later came to constitute the half-tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan and perhaps this was the tribe of Joseph that was attached to Manasseh.
After Jacob's adoption of Joseph's two sons, Joseph, apparently knowing the significance of that, then presented them to him for the blessing to follow with Manasseh, the firstborn, on Jacob's right and Ephraim on the left (v.13) But despite Joseph's protestations, Jacob crossed his hands and proceeded to bestow what would appear to be the greater blessing on Ephraim, the younger son. We don't know why this was done but it is not the first time nor the last time that a younger son was preferred above the firstborn. Centuries later, the great King David was chosen before all his older brothers because "...the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."I Sam. 16:7.
In verse 16 of the chapter under discussion, Jacob blesses them and says, "...let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." The multipicity of seed which God had originally promised Abraham was apparently passed mainly to Ephraim and Manasseh. At least they were apparently to be a multitude somewhat distinct from the other tribes.
Continuing on in verses 17-20, we read, "And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh."
The language here does not suggest something that is small and limited in scope. Rather, it conveys a sense of a rather significant development when complete in its fulfillment. Surely a "great people" and also " a multitude of nations" is something that would have an impact, would it not? This is not something that could be swept under the rug and go unnoticed on the world scene. But how many Christian people and how many Christian pastors give any thought to this matter as it relates to the will of God on earth or our understanding of world civilization? Very few.
Again, this stems from the theological traditions that the promises God made to the fathers have somehow been transferred to the church and that the Jews are all that are left of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Ephraim and Manasseh were seperate entities. If the Ephraim multitude of nations is merely referring to all the people of different nations who believed on Christ, then who is Manasseh? And the Jews have certainly not developed into a multitude of nations.
Earlier in our study, we concluded that the many nations that Abraham's descendants were to develop into over the centuries find their fulfillment among the many nations of Christendom. Jacob was to become "a nation and a company of nations" which, after consideration, we concluded could be a description of the United States and the British Commonwealth of nations. To avoid confusion, it should perhaps be noted at this point that in making this connection, there is no suggestion that Commonwealth nations like India and Bangladesh, etc. are peopled by the descendants of Ephraim just by virtue of once being a part of the British Empire. Most Commonwealth countries are peopled by racially different and often non-Christian peoples who were simply ruled over by the British. We should not imagine that these are the nations referred to in prophecy. But lands like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa where substantial numbers of British and related European peoples settled and formed nations as an extension of Christian civilization would be included.
The promise to Ephraim and Manasseh would appear to be the same prophecy and that these would be the leading tribes which would exhibit the most evident manifestation of God's national promises to Abraham. This is something that was to be fulfilled many centuries later as in Biblical times, the tribe of Ephraim had comparatively small territory relative to some of the other tribes.
Identifying specifically who is Ephraim and who is Manasseh and who has, therefore, received the greater blessing, has been a source of some disagreement. This is because the British and the Americans have both been greater in their turn.
At a time when the United States was still developing and not yet a world power, the British Empire had possessions and dominion over peoples in every corner of the globe and was a force to be reckoned with. As the British also started new nations through colonization, it seemed plain ( to some anyway ), that this was the Ephraim multitude of nations while the United States was the great people that Manasseh was to become.
That is not to say that everyone in the United States is descended from Manasseh but in this scenario, most of the early settlers and their descendants who helped found this nation very likely would have been and as the other Europeans came such as the Germans and the Irish and Scandinavians and others, the other tribes came to be represented as well. The major part of the white population of the U.S would be of Israel descent with Manasseh predominating.
But the United States has now clearly surpassed Britain, certainly as a world power, and it might be a matter of some debate as to whether even the British Commonwealth collectively is greater than the United States by many measures.
This has led some to point out that the word translated as multitude in this instance could have alternatively been translated as "fulness" and that the United States is the Ephraim fulness of nations. As Ephraim and Manasseh were to be a multitude ( different Hebrew word ) in the midst of the earth Gen. 48:16 and they were to exist in a ratio of 10 of Ephraim to 1 of Manasseh as in "they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh"Deuteronomy 33:17 and this is about the ratio of the population of the U.S. to that of Canada that these two nations are the multitude in the midst of the earth with the U.S. representing Ephraim and Canada as Manasseh, two brother nations having a common mother.
The reader should not be greatly disturbed over the difficulty in resolving this. It is nothing compared to the difficulty in trying to see this fulfilled in the Jews. One thing is for certain. The Brtitsh and Americans together have displayed the characteristics that the descendants of Joseph were to display and possess what was prophesied.
This should be evident as we examine Gen 49 and Deut.33.
Tribal Blessings
In Genesis 49,after his private meeting with Joseph and his two sons, Jacob, near death, calls his other sons together ,including Joseph, with these words, " Gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.".
One would think that with all the attention given to "the last days" by would be prophecy preachers that a verse such as this in the closing chapters of Genesis ought to figure heavily into their thinking and teaching. But it clearly does not and probably is ignored for the same reasons mentioned above as to why the prophetic blessings upon Ephraim and Manasseh are ignored. Thus they are starting off on the wrong foot by ignoring an early Scriptural reference to the last days.
The context shows that these blessings are upon the individual tribes and not so much the sons of Jacob themselves and scriptures such as Acts 2:17 and Hebrews 1:2 indicate the last days to be the time period between the first and second advents of Christ. That is when we would expect these blessings to be most evident and not so much in Biblical times.
As we concern ourselves with the prophetic blessings Jacob pronounced upon the tribes, we should also consider Deuteronomy 33 in conjunction with this as Moses similarly blessed the individual tribes before they entered the land of Canaan.
In verses 22-26 of chapter 49, Jacob says this of Joseph:
"Joseph [is] a fruitful bough, [even] a fruitful bough by a well; [whose] branches run over the wall: The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot [at him], and hated him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty [God] of Jacob; (from thence [is] the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) [Even] by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren."
In Deuteronomy 33:13-17, Moses has this to say about Joseph:
"And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD [be] his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,
And for the precious fruits [brought forth] by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and [for] the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let [the blessing] come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him [that was] separated from his brethren. His glory [is like] the firstling of his bullock, and his horns [are like] the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they [are] the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they [are] the thousands of Manasseh."
Let's try and put all of this together rather than dismiss this as a lot of nice sounding talk that doesn't really translate into anything tangible that we can point to while at the same time continuing to insist that we believe the Bible.
We have the description of a people and a land that were to exist in the time period known as the last days. Of the people, the comparison is made to a bough of a tree whose branches have run over the wall. This is symbolic language and is an indication that not only would this people branch out across the earth but they could not be held down by restrictions but would break free despite an armed attempt to prevent that as evidenced by the fact that the archers shot at him and hated him. Would it not, therefore be fair to surmise that the descendants of Joseph would not only be freedom loving people but would, in fact, have that freedom, the freedom that many of earth's peoples could only dream about and that this would be because God would strengthen them in their effort to secure It as in "the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob " (Gen 49:24)?
And what of the land? It seems that Jacob and Moses, especially Moses, cannot say enough about the good land and the blessings upon top of blessings that would characterize Joseph's land.
In the context of describing "his land", both Jacob and Moses take note of the fact that Joseph was separated from his brethren so it would seem that this was not only true in his personal life when he was taken to Egypt but also with respect to his land. And as Joseph went before the other sons to Egypt to prepare the way, this may very well have transpired tribally as well and representatives of the other tribes later joined Joseph in his land.
If the reader ponders the blessings given above, it will be clear that Joseph's land would have "blessings of heaven above" which could refer both to adequate rainfall and also to spiritual blessings compared to other lands. "Blessings of the deep that lieth under" refers to ready access to great fishing fields so it is near the oceans, not landllocked. "Blessings of the breasts and of the womb" imply a vigorous and substantial population. Continuing on we read of an abundance of food and natural resources. God appeared to Moses in a burning bush. "And the good will of him that dwelt in the bush" is an indication that God's good will toward Joseph and his land would be an apparent fact.
The Christian clergy, unfortunately, either cannot find Joseph's land on the world scene today or they place it somewhere in the desert. Can you find it?
Since Abraham and his descendants were so abundantly blessed by God, would it be unreasonable to suppose that Joseph's land is truly the most blessed and favored country of all human history? Is it possible that the Holy Spirit moved Jacob and Moses to go into such detail regarding Joseph's land and then go and bless another people in far greater measure than He blessed Joseph and not tell us? Is it possible that the land we have been accustomed to regarding from our childhood as having to our wonderment unquestionably enjoyed most favored nation status by heaven throughout its history despite sin and wickedness is not Joseph's land? In other words, if the United States ( and Canada) is not Joseph's land then where is it? However enamored some may be with the thought that the family rockpile in the Middle East is supposedly blossoming like a rose, can it compare with what God has done in North America?
What Moses has to say about the actions of Ephraim and Manasseh is revealing as well. In Deut. 33:17 he says of Joseph, " His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns,: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth.: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh."
The word glory as it is used here refers to national glory. Some nations have more than others and the descendants of Joseph in the last days would have no shortage of that. The pushing referred to here was not to be limited to a small spot on the earth, the family homestead in the Middle East, for example, but would be much wider in scope as suggested by the phrase, "to the ends of the earth."
We might ask ourselves where are the thousands upon thousands of Jews who have pushed people together to the ends of the earth? They are not to be found. But this pushing is one of the main gripes that the heathen world has had against the white Europeans who, in a burst of activity over several centuries, extended their population and influence beyond the confines of their European homeland and pushed and pushed and pushed. The Colonial Age is something that had an impact on the whole world.
Especially here in North America, the white man came, especially people from the British Isles at first, wave after wave, pushing the American Indian ever further. And this extended into the military realm in later times as well. For some reason when I ponder this pushing that was to take place to the ends of the earth, I think of the Americans, British, Australians, etc. pushing the Japanese empire back to its doorstep and General Douglas Macarthur on the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay accepting the Japanese surrender..."to the ends of the earth"
Of course, some might cynically point out that in ancient and medieval times, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan did quite a bit of pushing over a great expanse of territory as well or Alexander the Great, etc. But these individuals were not carrying the Bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ with them as they did so resulting in the formation of great Christian nations of which it could be said, ...and I will be their God," nor did they end up in lands that fit the description of Joseph's land.
It is well to remember an important mark of Israel recorded in Isaiah 49:8-9 wherein we read, "Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that [are] in darkness, Shew yourselves."
In other words, in a day of salvaton, that is the Christian era, God would help and preserve Israel and "give thee for a covenant of the people", or give them a special, covenant based mission, "to establish the earth," or make it more liveable by spreading civilization. And where would they do this? "...to cause to inherit the desolate heritages". In other words, they would go into the desolate wilderness of North America, Australia, and even Africa etc. and carve out new nations and raise the standard of living there. And why would they do this? "That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that [are] in darkness, Shew yourselves." In other words, they would do this for the sake of liberty and giving a voice to those who previously had none.
You would think a few bells ought to start sounding in some preachers' minds but for some reason, none do.
There is a tendency, a Satanic one no doubt, to focus on the evils that were attendant with the prophecy now history described above and that because the good that came out of this didn't happen overnight but was a process, the whole affair is supposed to be discredited in our minds. But whatever the motives and actions of men, God's will is being worked out.
It is the much maligned peoples of white European ancestry, especially those of British stock, who have fulfilled the above prophecies.
It may seem that we are making light of any notion that old Canaan land has a future in the plan of God. Since this territory was given to the descendants of Abraham in perpetuity, God undoubtedly has something in mind. But the probable significance of a Jewish presence there has been dealt with in the earlier article entitled, The Blessing of Esau.
We must remember that the little land of Palestine is too small to accomodate all the seed of Abraham. We must also remember that it is the teaching of the Scriptures that Israel was to have a new home, a new promised land.
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea all make mention of a wilderness land that God would lead Israel to and there fulfill His promises to them.
Jeremiah 31:2 states, "Thus saith the LORD, The people [which were] left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; [even] Israel, when I went to cause him to rest." It would be in a wilderness land where Israel would find rest and the favor of God would be evident upon them.
Just quoting this one verse, we might be inclined to think this is but symbolic language and not a reference to a literal place so we must compare scripture with scripture.
Ezekiel prophesied at the time of the Babylonian captivity but much of his prophesying was directed at the house of Israel which had gone into the Assyrian captivity 150 or so years earlier.
Speaking through the prophet, God says to Israel in Ezek. 20:33-38,"[As] I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:"
In other words, regardless of how things may look now, neither the ACLU, the liberal wings of the various political parties , the Council on Foreign Relations, nor the international bankers or any other group that people might be concerned about can prevent Almighty God from having the final say in how the United States as an Israel nation is going to conduct its civil affairs and its foreign policy and every other aspect of our national life. That has been settled. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth at this but it is coming.
Continuing on, " And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD."
Here is another reference to a wilderness, the "wilderness of the people" as Ezekiel calls it. The wilderness of the people is evidently not another name for the land given to Abraham over in the Middle East but it is where God said He would bring Israel and discipline them and bring them into the "bond of the covenant." But there are some who will object to this, "rebels" they are called. But they do not belong here and are considered to be sojourners in a different sense from what Abraham was a sojourner. Evidently, they will be deported.
However, reference is made later in the chapter (verse 42)to God bringing Israel "...into the land of Israel, into the country [for] the which I lifted up my hand to give it to your fathers."
The land in the Middle East is the land God gave to the fathers so this may be a referring to when it will become necessary for the birthright house of Joseph ( USA and Britain ) to execute judgment in that land as is described in Obadiah v.18.
God also says through the prophet Hosea, " Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt." Since Israel was in the first promised land at the time these words were written, this would seem to be a reference to another land where God would lead Israel. It is "there", as the prophet says, that Israel would "sing as in the days of her youth", not " here,," that is to say, where the prophet was standing.
It should be obvious by now that the North American wilderness is what is considered to be the primary fulfillment of what is written.
If that were not enough, the prophet Nathan was commanded by God to render a prophecy to King David after God had given him rest from all his enemies and David wished to build a house for God. Aside from a promise to David to establish his throne forever, God tells him through Nathan in II Samuel 7:10, "Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime,"
Here again, while Israel was yet in the first promised land, God speaks of an appointed place in which He would take it upon Himself to plant them and it would be their own place or land from which they would not move or be subject to deportation as they came to be in the first promised land.
Traditionally, this has been regarded as Britain and while a portion of Israel is still established there, over the centuries large numbers of people have moved from there to form new nations elsewhere. It makes sense that the appointed place is indeed the end of the road, so to speak, and so the belief that North America is that appointed place is growing in acceptance.
If we see our American history in this light, that is, the light of the Scriptures, it ought to confirm in our minds that God is indeed still in control, that He has kept faith with Abraham, and it ought to inspire us to be evermore discerning of what the will of the Lord is in our national affairs and not only our personal lives. We should be reminded that while God chastens them that He loves, and this is true nationally as well as personally, He will not forsake His people and this, also, is true nationally and not just personally.