Psalm 80:2

Psalm 80:2

Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin

Joseph had a younger brother, Benjamin, and he also had two sons – Ephraim and Manasseh. These male heirs of Joseph were adopted by his father, Jacob, to be his sons and thus were inheritors of large areas in the land that God gave the flock of Israel. Later, Ephraim and Manasseh came to represent the 10 northern tribes of Israel. 

Why are these four mentioned in this verse? Why is the Shepherd of Israel not requested to shine forth before the other sons of Jacob?  Joseph had a very special place in his father’s heart. Jacob was inconsolably, grief-stricken when he thought he had lost his favourite son who, according to his older brothers, had been brutally killed by a wild animal. Joseph was the one who had induced such jealousy amongst the others and who had proudly worn that coat of many colours. Joseph was a picture of Christ in so many ways and often, when the New Testament calls Jesus a son of Joseph, it is talking about Jacob’s son not Mary’s husband! The only comfort Jacob received during his years of loss was the birth of another son – Benjamin. The little boy stayed close to his father’s heart and somehow filled the hole that Joseph’s loss had created. You may remember that Jacob was very reluctant to let Benjamin go to Egypt with his older siblings. 

Ask all the family and they will tell you that Joseph and Benjamin stood head and shoulders above the rest, in their father’s affections. Then Jacob decided, on his deathbed, to effectively adopt Joseph’s sons into his own family bloodline. The two boys had been raised in Egypt and had an Egyptian mother. Jacob was effectively giving Joseph a double portion of inheritance and also elevating these two boys into the immediate family tree of Israel. To this day, Jewish families bless their male heirs with the words, “May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.”

 

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