Big up the underdog

Genesis 48:14-20 ESV

And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn). And he blessed Joseph and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, "Not this way, my father; since 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. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations." So he blessed them that day, saying, "By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, "God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh." Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

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We used to play a card game called scum in our church youth group.  The game is arranged so it is nearly impossible to get out of fictional poverty. While those at the top in places of competitive privilege had to be pretty poor players to lose their position. Real life is life that.

But God seems to regularly break with convention. This isn't the first time that God chooses the younger over the older nor will it be the last.

You'd think of all the people who'd have understood the difficulties of challenging family and social conventions Jacob (Israel) and Joseph would have understood.  Maybe that's why Joseph tries to correct what he perceives as his father's error. Remember Jacob is younger than Esau but Jacob got the birthright and blessing. Joseph was nearly the youngest and he got the coat of many colours. Further Joseph is a former slave, he's on the sex offenders list (albeit wrongly accused), and he's an ex convict. You really would not have put that on your CV to apply to be head of finance, agriculture, refugee relocation and disaster relief planning. Nor would you expect a foreigner born into a family whose livelihood of shepherding was considered an abomination in Egypt to be second in government.  The media would have had a hay day with that list and his ratings in the poles would have plummeted.

But God loves to turn the tables and break with convention. He loves to show that he's the one who sets people up and brings them down.

Maybe you feel like you're stuck at the bottom of the heap. Maybe you feel like there is no way at all that you'd ever qualify did any thing good any more.

Humble yourself under God and he will be working out a role reversal for you. He says he'll lift you up. Broken, tainted, at the back of the queue people are God's favourite people to bless. Number two or number 202 God's plan is to promote you to Jesus' side, effectively in the heavenly cabinet.

Missed the grade? Prepare for blessing!

Fruitful in the Land of my Affliction

GEN 41:51-52 ESV

Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house."  The name of the second he called Ephraim, "For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."

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Joseph has had it hard. He was singled out by his father as the most loved of 12 boys. That's gotta hurt! The whole robe thing is embarrassing. He's sent by his Father to effectively be a nark and check up on his brothers. That's not going to make you popular. Then God gives Joseph these dreams that no one wants to hear, not even his father. He's tossed in a deep hole and then sold to his cousins as a slave and in turn sold in Egypt. Joseph does well though until a sex crazed woman lies about him. And He's tossed into another pit, jail. And again he does well and even gets a big break with the cupbearer to Pharaoh, only to be forgotten for another two years. So when Joseph is 30 he has a huge life change and comes into fame and fortune! And he is railroaded into marrying the daughter of a false religion's leader.

But Joseph makes the best of the situation and gets busy! Now he has two sons. Joseph's son's names are significant. In fact when the twelve tribes of Israel are named throughout all history you will not hear Joseph himself named. Instead you hear of Joseph's sons! Have you ever thought about the fact that built into the twelve tribes of Israel are two half Egyptian grandson's to the high priest of an Egyptian god? 

Sometimes we need another perspective. And nothing can quite give us a new vantage point like a newborn baby. All that a newborn encapsulates fills us with hope. They are needy, vulnerable, and full of possibility and still they are resilient and demanding.

Joseph sees a new future when God blesses him with sons. And the blessing erases the past and provides for the future.

Now I'd like to encourage each one of you to have sons! But I mean spiritual sons! You are not too old, too single, too afflicted to ask God to make your faith fruitful. What your church needs are new believers. What your family needs is someone who has newly come to trust Jesus. We need in the church today the hope that comes with people being born again. Wherever you are, whatever your state in life, I'm asking you to pray that God makes you fruitful! I'm asking that you hope for newborns in the kingdom of God. And I pray as they come you give them names, may be new names. In addition to brother or sister call them Hope! Name them Ephraim! 

As time goes on and God speaks of his people, he uses different tribes to refer to the whole or called them all Israel after Jacob's name change. When heartbroken over his people God's term of endearment in the book of Hosea is Ephraim. So an Egyptian boy whose grandfather was a very important religious leader for an Egyptian god and his other grandfather was a man who actually wrestled with the one true God of promise. Ephraim, the son of Joseph is a sign of fruitfulness that comes from affliction.