The Ephraim and Manasseh Blessing [Part 1]

Pastor author and Bible teacher Alan Wright.

The very last thing Jesus when he was leaving words he had with his disciples were just told us he was ascending, he lifted up his hand and he blessed that's pastor and how in right welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life for a whole new light. I'm being excited for you to hear today's message in a series titled the power of blessing is presented with an older church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright ministry as you listen to today's message go deeper as we send you today special offer.

Contact us@pastor.org that's Pastor Alan.org or call 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program right now. Let's get started with today's teaching in the series praying with our here is Alan Wright. I felt sorry for minister of the same things happen to me was onus on his way to pre-check funeral semi-he didn't even know it was an a place he did nowhere's going out to know the country and yet loss and I have a one-time gallows only took to do a graveside service Loss can find it you know so late and fail you know you probably people were even disbursed it in no but then he saw out in the field he saw some loose dirt salsa member shovels and saw Mount and he said this is the spot. I guess I got out there only people left with a they are now closed in the dirt guise of the work mentors over there's another shade of a tree is in well I'm go ahead and just preach now and he said Lord didn't didn't know this man the Lord.

I just thank you. I dislike for managers and any begin. Just preach the gospel and I am and before you know it.

That workmen, they got up and they were spray were standing up someone start a minute and and and at present he just preach his heart out right there next that loose dirt and and said a man went over and shook the hand of all people left and when he did one workmen looked at the other nascent manners anything like that of you thousand know he said and I been putting septic tanks and for 17 years harassing anything. Are you ready for some good news.

The Lord has made you like Ephraim and Manasseh were starting today. A new series on the power of blessing and I want to start with one of the greatest stories ever told and we began with a verse or two in Matthew chapter 10 and then we can be turning back to Genesis Matthew 10 and verse 13 Matthew, I'm sorry Mark. Mark 10 and verse 13 they were bringing children to him that he might touch them and the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw he was indignant and said to them, let the children come to me to not hinder them for the such belongs the kingdom of God truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it and he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them, so Mark very clear what what Jesus was doing his love the little kids and as they brought them to Jesus. He was blessing them and we don't know what all he was saying as he laid his hands on them blessing that he was.

He was speaking a positive future of their life and and about one of the things that I feel almost certain that Jesus spoke over these children because this was the custom in Israel was that he probably began his blessing by saying may you be as Ephraim and Manasseh, in order to understand that this is required to look back at us a story and Genesis that's absolutely amazing.

Don't refers to Genesis chapter 41 to tell you about who Ephraim and Manasseh are and we pick up reading in the story of Joseph, who is many of you may know the story had been sold into slavery by his brothers, but by the promise of God to been raised up to second in command of all of Egypt and had overseen a time in which they were they were there aware there's gonna be a season of plenty for seven years and they saved up their grain and then there's gonna be a season of famine and we are Genesis 41 verse 49 and Joseph stored up grain and great abundance like the sand of the sea until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured before the year famine came two sons were born to Joseph. Verse 51 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 and the name of the second he called Ephraim for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction, so Joseph who has been thought dead by his family and has been through so much affliction is now blessed with these two boys firstborn Manasseh, the second born Ephraim and the name Manasseh comes from a root that sounds like to forget.

And so it's like I forgot all that pain because God so good to me. So that's about healing and then the second is Ephraim which sounds like a word to be made fruitful, or some would say it means twice fruitful. So that really is about the hope that he has and we don't learn much else about Ephraim and Manasseh, because it's not really is not really their character. That is the important thing instead is what happens the blessing the spoken over them and so we pick up the story and seven chapters later in Genesis chapter 48 and this is after Joseph has been reunited with his brothers and with his father and now his father has grown old and this is what happens in Genesis 48 verse one after this Jesus. Joseph was told to hold your father is ill, so he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim and was told to Jacob your son Joseph has come to you, then Israel, that's Jacob's new name, so Israel and Jacob. Interchangeable names Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed and Jacob said to Joseph God Almighty appeared to me at loose and the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you. I will make of you a company of peoples give this land to your offspring after you, for an everlasting possession and now your two sons.

Your two sons were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine.

Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine is Reuben and Simeon are so what he saying here is Jacob had 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel.

Boy Jacob is saying here to Joseph is is your two boys.

If you Manasseh I'm adopting mammals is to be as though they are my children, not migrant. The father loves you as his own, not his grandchildren, not us removed from him, but his absolute own.

The story continues at verse eight. Israel is Jacob Saul, Joseph, sons, he said. Who are these, and Joseph said to his father. They are my sons from God's given me here.

They said, bring them to me please that I may bless them.

Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so you could not see. So Joseph brought them near him and kissed them, embrace them, and Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face, and behold, God is.

Let me see your offspring also. Then Joseph removed them from his knees and he bowed himself with his face to the earth, and Joseph took them both, Ephraim, and his right hand toward Israel's left and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand and brought them near him 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. Verse 17 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 the father refused and said I know my son, I know he shall also become a people, and he shall also become 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 if from and Manasseh. Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh just to make sure they understand what was happening here is that Joseph has brought his two sons to their dying grandfather Jacob and the custom was that the primary and and and powerful blessing would be spoken over the firstborn and the symbol of that special power that special affirmation is in the right hand, the right hand symbolize the strings so the greater blessing is in the in the right hand. So custom would have it that the right hand would be on the firstborn who was Manasseh in the left all would be on on Ephraim and that's the way Joseph had position them under Jacob's hands, but instead what happened here was that Jacob took his hands and he crossed them like this. And Joseph try to correct them and and and and said no you know your confused father and and Jacob said no. I know what I am doing talent right will have more teaching moment. Today's important series before that to be fruitful before that called Abraham to fibrillation.

She dressed before God releases Sacramento ministry. He blessed my secret strategy to empower you to be all humanity to be when others affirm you unless it is proven their worth. You did well in a Taoist accomplished a goal and prove yourself competent information is nice. It's not the way strategy is to declare your wife before you have anything to prove it is the fuel for your productivity mark. The reward for it in your hearts be sealed from (because the ad is holding a blessing for media ready to shatter that invisible ceiling that keeps you from soaring around the pastor and writes the power of blessing will change your life change as you discover the ancient scale of the Hebrew patriarchs as they dress their children to tune your heart to accept blessing and reject her's most evolved drinking. The unquenchable blessing of God in Jesus Christ, God's way with Karen Reitz, sent a message. The album power blessing when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries to listen to pastor's messages in an attractive see album with your digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership.

We are happy to send this to you as I banks from Alan Wright Ministries, seven 877-544-4861 come to our website pastor out and work today's teaching now continues here once again is I would suggest you if you ask yourself that question you are asking the primary gospel question and it would be a good measuring rod for you to know the vitality of your spiritual health.

When Abigail her daughter was just little bitty and you know she's see sit at the dinner table and with the family and I remember looking across the table there. She said in her little booster seat over there and she is so cute she's just so cute and it will blonde hair whispering all over the place and the little eyes just sparkling and and it was that time.

It dinner often. I do speak blessing over the family and I just ago Abby and I just try to just put it best I could in her in a two-year-old level. Abby you are so cute you are so sweet. You are so beautiful I just love you so much. Abigail right you are the most wonderful little girl in the whole world. I think you are the cutest thing I have ever think she's looking at me. You know, and she just kinda like taking it like that and it was like it was like she was a little cup you good to see you know just in this crazy just like his being filled up like this and I kept going until finally she just turned over to Anna. Blurt out and said I love you mommy passed away a beautiful life. It is like just a little company just filled up up up up up until they just had to spill over.

I just find this if I am convinced, and experiencing the blessedness and the love of God to that sort of accident. It causes me to be able to love others without even trying. Nobody needs to say oh are you living a Christian life. Nobody needs to say that because if you know yourself blessed just happens doesn't it also means resistance to temptation because if you know yourself to be that profoundly blessed there.

What temptation can ensnare you who needs to covet when you already know your blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ who needs to follow after an idol or be driven by a particular lust or some besetting sin if you know that you know that you know that you absolutely bless your soul doesn't hunger and thirst to try to satisfy itself with lesser things and most of all it means this to me when I know myself to be blessed it is, then it is and it is in the spirit of that blessedness that everything within me is energized. I mean energize passionately powerfully energized to fulfill the calling of God on my life. In other words, you are so much more likely to succeed and live the victorious Christian life when you simply know how blessed you are and therefore if even one shred of what I am now saying is true. It would therefore be incumbent and wise for every single Christian to cultivate the craft of blessing the other people because the people in your life who you want to see prosper.

You want to see because holding to be a blessing to others your children your spouses your coworkers your friends and even your enemies to these the most powerful force of change that God is giving you as a spiritual principle that is the power of blessing and in coming weeks we will learn all about this. You learn about what it means to blessing to learn about how we release the blessing how we receive that, but when you learn how it is so powerful, even when people have opposed you and persecuted how we are invited to speak blessing over them because in the beginning God blessed Adam and Eve and then he said, be fruitful and multiply. When he called Abraham what did is called consist of Abraham. I am going to bless you and your going to be a blessing when he came to Moses and began to speak about how they are to interact with the people he said I want your brother Aaron is a priest and all the priest that every time the people of God get together. I want to lift up your hands and say a blessing. The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord be kind and gracious to you and so we see the patriarch who learn how to bless their children and we watch the great leaders like David as they blessed the household and then Jesus was born and when baby Jesus is born. There's something so important about the spoken blessing that God appoints a prophetic man named Simeon to come and lift up Jesus and speak a blessing over the baby, who is the son of God and is already blessed.

He's already blessed.

But when he was baptized at Galilee and in the end, the spirit came down like a dove, the father of heaven spoke blessing over his son. This is my son in whom I am well pleased because he was getting way to face fierce temptation in the way that you make it through. Temptation is the affirmation of the blessedness of your life and you know that Jesus began his ministry by speaking out about things. Blessed are the poor in spirit very last thing that Jesus did when he was leaving earth and the last words he had with his disciples where just told us he was ascending, he lifted up his hand and he blessed the disciples.

Peter and Paul both tell us that when you're persecuted and you have enemies.

The secret the giant secret of the Christian is to bless them, and so on this day when they were bringing these little children to Jesus. They just wanted him to touch them is a great rabbi who's here I want him to lay his hands on my children because they understood the power of blessing and I think Jesus began by saying May the Lord make you like Ephraim and Manasseh, it's a strange thing that this would be the very blessing that Israel was told to speak over all the children, why not something about people we know something about a man who are Ephraim and Manasseh, but why not.

May the Lord make you like Abraham and Moses sore. May the Lord make you like David and Solomon for May the Lord make you like Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Elijah and Elisha, but may the Lord make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. This is the blessing of Israel, but understand it is not to understand so much about Ephraim and Manasseh would understand about Jacob.

Jacob is whole life is a story of a man who was already predestined to be blessed beyond his imagination, but it took him his whole life to figure it out. So he lived his whole life until his old age, as if he were not blessed and it seemed like it began even before he was born because the Bible said that there was a tossing about to these two twins inside of of Rebecca's womb.

They were in their wrestling. I think Jacobs and their wrestling Esau before they were born and is symbolized by the fact that Esau was born first and though the customs of prima Gen X you're always meant the firstborn was going to get it extra special affection from all of the culture we can get a double portion of the of the inheritance was a run the family farm or the family business and was in it and it was good to receive upon his father's deathbed would receive a special spoken blessing from his father. So I want to be the firstborn son and his son was funny because is Jacob is is being born. He's coming in second place but is grab hold of Esau's heel is always like he did note he did know what he was doing, but you try to pull himself in the first place. In his whole life you live like there's a little like man I got to I gotta do something if I'm going to be blessed but it didn't know already been a prophecy that said that the younger would be more blessed than the older, and so was that he was always jockeying for position, always striving always track so there was a day and was Jacobs out. He is suffix some lentil stew and Esau was a hunter in a and a and outdoorsman and he been out hunting or something and he's all famished a team and he saw this great smooth nice smelling stew that Jacob had fixed it and Esau said give me some of that stupid and I Jacobs and I'll give you this stoves that you gotta pay for that because that's what you think. If you think you're on. Bless you never really have much to give to anybody. Every human relationship becomes about what can I get from you desolate. Jacob, what, and any said he said Esau sell me your birthright and is also what uses my birthright when I'm famished like I am now and so he he swore his birthright to Jacob and got some students was the way Jacob just lived his life until he reached this moment where Jacob realizes it's that special time of importation from their father Isaac is going to be spoken of the firstborn Esau and Jacob, who is favored by his mother Rebecca i.e. comes up with a plan wherein he is going to pretend to be Esau, and so they they put some animal skins on them because Esau was hairy and Jacob was not and they put some of Esau's clothing that would smell like Esau put on Jacob and he went into his blind father Isaac and he lied to him and he said it it it is I is your firstborn Esau is when you when you don't know that your blessed don't know what you're doing because with me what he's doing here now is he is essentially come full circle to the point where essentially what Jacob is saying is I can't be blessed unless I'm somebody else just say this is one of the preeminent lies of hell is that you have to do something. You have to make yourself something you have to measure up. You have to make yourself presentable if you're ever really going to be blessed to the point that you really can't be blessed, for who you are and is no greater lie because of course the truth of the gospel is that Christ died for the ungodly. While you're still in their sin. I came for somewhere at our worst, so you can be assured that every single moment the love and affection of God set up on your cross and never change today's teaching in the series, the power of blessing and we invite you to stay with us.

Alan is back.

Just a moment with additional insight on today's teaching for your life and today's final word before I got to be fruitful before that called Abraham to file a motion to address 10 before not release his Sacramento ministry. He dressed 10 while secret strategy to empower you to be all he mentioned to be when others affirm you unless it is proven their worth. You did well in italics accomplished a goal and prove yourself competent information is nice. It's not the way of God strategy is to declare your wife before you have anything to prove that any Kingdom are borrowed is the fuel for your productivity, not the reward for it will be in your hearts be sealed from (because the ad is holding a blessing for media ready to shatter that invisible ceiling that keeps you from soaring Iraqi pastor and writes the power of blessing will change your life change as you discovered an ancient scale of the Hebrew patriarchs as they bless their children to tune your heart to accept blessing and reject her's most evolved drink in the unquenchable blessing of God in Jesus Christ, God's way with Karen Reitz, sent a message. The album the power of blessing when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today listen to pastor's messages in an attractive city album with your digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Call us at 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website pastor out.work. Alan is were kicking off this series the power of blessing.

One thing that really sticks out is the fact that he loved us at our worst. So, that right there is assurance that he loves us today. Love is forever right well they be so many listeners that this is gonna rock your world. If you begin to think about the way that God brings transformation are like he doesn't wait until you improve yourself and then bless you he blesses you with a positive vision of your life so that you can grow into it. It's absolutely countercultural. Daniel and I'm just so excited to be launching this year's one of the most Wharton messages that we have today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries