And Joseph said to his father, ‘Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.’ But his father refused and said, ‘I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.'” (vv.18-19)
Here in our text, Jacob was old and about to die, so Joseph brought his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim to him to be blessed. But Joseph thought his father was getting confused and making a mistake when he crossed his hands and placed his right hand on the younger instead of the older during the blessing. After all, the firstborn would normally be the blessed and favored son.
But the old patriarch, Jacob, was very aware that this reverse blessing was exactly what God intended for Jacob to do. Once again the younger was to be greater. Manasseh’s offspring would be great too, but this passing over of the firstborn for the second-born is one of the striking reoccurring features of the Book of Genesis: Seth instead of Cain, Shem instead of Japheth, Abraham instead of Haran, Isaac instead of Ishmael, Jacob instead of Esau, and here Ephraim instead of Manasseh. It continued on as the human author of Genesis, Moses, was chosen instead of Aaron.
God again and again chooses the weak. God is sovereign and seems often to choose against man’s preference. Could it be that God wants to prevent anyone from thinking that His blessings automatically follow the line of natural privilege?
The Truth: "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." (1 Cor. 1:27–29)
