Like Ephraim and Manasseh [Part 1]

Pastor author and Bible teacher Alan Wright. What happens to us is of the devil uses are asked to keep a soul locked up in the memory of previous in our previous failure, previous her previous trauma is the only thing that can keep us from God to get his healed them out of the past so we forget our troubles. Then we can move on and be twice as Allen right to another message of good views that will help you see your life in a whole new light of the excited for you to hear the teaching today. In the series that we called the top 10 Pastor Alan is presented remove the church in North Carolina in the first 10 years of pastor Ellen's radio broadcast. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program. I will make sure you know how to get our special resource right now, a digital copy of the top 10 from Pastor Alan Wright this digital download can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright ministry score if you prefer we do have a CD album available. Your choice as you listen to today's message go deeper as we send you today special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org that's pastor out in.org or call 877-544-4860 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program but now as we get started with today's teaching like Ephraim and Manasseh, the blessing God offers everyone a classic message that became much of the subject of his newly released book, the power to bless available wherever books are sold or had Pastor Alan.org here now is Allen right to talk to someone today about how our minds can be more deeply transformed with the forgetting of what is the pain and the the woundedness of yesterday in order to look towards the destiny that is tomorrow to continue to think about how we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. This text here is one that conjures a beautiful innocent little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them Jesus and let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these, and when he had placed his hands on them. He went on from there.

I love this this image.

I like this picture of Christ because in the first place. He loved children and the little ones he he welcome to come up and get in his lap wanted to touch them, put his hands on them and what he was doing really what he was blessing the children he was blessing the way that any Hebrew patriarch would bless his own children you speak a kind of file prophetically powerful word sometimes is just the simplest way over somebody's life and here's the son of God who has the Holy Spirit without measure.

Here's the son of God who flows in the all the gifts of the Spirit and has the anointing on him that is greater than anyone has ever encountered before and he's going to bless the children and I like to just envision what it might've been like you know you don't know what he said to each of these children as they came, he might've had a rambunctious kid. I could just see came to see the Savior disorder laughing as I am my own energy and lay his hands on him speak a word over him if you know you are going to be full of energy of the Holy Spirit to do the work of the kingdom, you know you could just see him saying something like that are looking into some child's heart to might be a little shy and speaking a word about the depth of that child's capacity to meditate on the things of God or some blessing that you could just see the Lord speaking over each of these children. We don't know what Jesus would have been saying as he was laying his hands on these children by I'm almost positive of one thing he was probably saying all on me. I can't be positive as it still is a gas but is likely that he would finish what he was saying over these children with the words that Hebrew fathers would speak over their own children on the Sabbath day and and I can't because but I'm pretty sure that after Jesus had spoken whatever he was speaking of these children that he would've said.

May the Lord make you like Ephraim and Manasseh, because every Sabbath. This is what Hebrew fathers whatever blessings they would give to their signs, they would say in conclusion, may the Lord make you like Ephraim and Manasseh, in order to begin to grasp what that could possibly be about. We have to think about this incredible theme that we've been seeing running through the old covenant that there is a conflict between the older sibling and the younger, and specifically between the firstborn son, and the younger son what we've seen is that from the very beginning from the very first family.

The first two brothers.

They had this very conflict they came offered to the Lord something that was not as pleasing as Abel's offering. And so God gave Abel a compliment. So there you go.

I'm an older brother couldn't stand the on about you and get a compliment that he didn't get any sense of special favor toward the younger, and came took great offense at this and the bitterness grew full force into the spirit of murder, and he killed and we come through the pages of Scripture we see over and over. This kind of conflict with the older and the younger the older is the one who has so much favor because it's a farce born son and all the society celebrates the firstborn in the family so excited I mean is just is just a fascinating thing, Brandon Williams, who was set forth from here is full-time ministry at Wake Forest and they had a first child we go yesterday and Brandon was Virg last night just so fun watching the glow on his face you know and everything and watching the celebration affect I brought a Moncada game a little impromptu interview about what it's like to be a daddy for the first time he's like I just want to be with them all the time and that is just like you can't describe it in this is one of and part of what happens is when that first child comes. It's like there's been so much of a sense of hope and expectancy, and then when this child comes, you have this celebration that in the first place. If there's something here that is going to live on and so much of the life of Israel has been shaped by the theme of the expectancy of that child and yet the delay of the child and so the problem over and over is the problem of infertility and there seems to be no child and yet there's a promise of a child, and this theme runs through so that there's a greatness to the celebration when the firstborn comes along and were still like that and we can. We have expectations over the firstborn because it's like everything is fresh and the firstborn has got all these possibilities is a and by the time you have your firstborn you had to accept so many of your own dreams have kinda died away.

I mean, you still got dreams but you know you you get. You got to get to a point known to man. We realize you're not going to be a major league baseball player. You know you are not. And sometimes you just got to to get to this point it within his firstborn comes what we tend to do is go I not been major-league but you could be majorly safe and and is is good like you got faith, but also that faith can get joined by pressure right and so there's always a fine line there was so much for just finals down onto the shoulders of this little innocent boy that comes into the family and this theme just runs through the Scriptures so you don't go very far from the story of Cain and Abel and you come up to the story of Jay companies and Jacob was a connive. Let's not forget that he he deceived his way into blessing the significance of the story of Jacob is the focus is not on the power of the deception and sin inside of Jacob, but the focus is on the power of the promise in the power of the blessing, so much so never forget this, that when Jacob deceives his aged father Isaac deceives Isaac into thinking that Jacob is actually he saw the firstborn and cons of this moment we supposed to get this very special fatherly patriarchal blessing spoken over the firstborn and with that double portion of the inheritance and when that moment comes the nearly blind Isaac is deceived and he lays his hands upon Jacob, thinking it's Esau, and once he realizes that he's made a mistake because Esau comes in and he saw her eyes out and says my father said blessed me to do the blessing. Is it what Hebrew patriarch understood his words don't come out your mouth and sometimes Landon sometimes tumbled to the ground itself has power that comes out of mouth so we went our Western culture. We we lost this would only does it really doesn't blab away about anything and say anything and it didn't matter. You just take it back.

You can stuff it back into your spirit and how to cons and so when he said you're the one that gets the double portion of the inheritance.

Here's the blessing on you. It had been spoken and once it had been spoken.

It had been enacted. The word itself enacted the blessing the word you have the inheritance enacted the inheritance challenge right will have more teaching moment from today's important series of the radio from Alan Wright Ministries for quite some time now and God has used every one of those messages broadcast hadn't really hit home, and special rates in gratitude of more than a decade of radio we have assembled the most powerful messages each year. The first time into gathering. One special album when you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries?

We went to Alan Wright's top 10 CD album by digital download. Are you ready for some good news your gifting to discover God's grace afresh with Alan Wright's top 10. The first decade the gospel is shared when you get to Alan Wright Ministries.

This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you get today. We will send you get a special offer. We are happy to send this to you as I thanks from Alan Wright Ministries, seven 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website past Rowan.work. Today's teaching now continues your once again is Alan running what we now have like three or four contracts of 15 lawyers everything you finally say that is binding and still some idle so you try to overturn it. What then it was just a word came out of mouth and he understood that as of the word came out he was blessed and so Isaac said I have blessed him. He trembled when he realized his mistake but he said I have blessed them in the DW blessed and it was your revocable. It was the blessing was irrevocable. Please notice this the sin in Jacob's life would be forgiven, but the blessing out of Isaac's mouth was irrevocable to some of the gospel. While Jacob haven't stolen this blessing gets the hatred of his brother Esau lives in most of years in the situation of division and angst between Esau and Jacob and then Jacob has sons and Jacob really loved Joseph because Joseph was born to Rachel and Rachel was Jacob's favorite. But Joseph, being the young one. Once again, is hated by his older brothers. They throw him into a pit they conspired to kill them with anything better of it and so will will sell them into slavery. They sell him to some passersby who take him to Egypt where he is made a slave in Potiphar's household. And while he's there. This young man who still a teenager has Potiphar's wife come out from and when Joseph refuses. She accuses Joseph of seeking to take advantage of her and Potiphar seems to have no choice but to throw Joseph into prison, so Joseph has been has been has been hurt in the deepest ways isn't it true is nobody can hurt you like your own family, but the whole world despise me, but not my own family. When your own family despise. He's a slave made it to a slave he's put into utter obscurity in this Egyptian prison system so much trouble in his life. But Joseph is so discerning, so close to God has such a prophetic ability that he wisely interprets Pharaoh's dreams and through this gets promoted to second in command of all of Egypt. You never know with lavender you never know what will happen, and then he is wisely governing saving up grain for seven years getting ready for what he knows, and the spirit will be seven years of famine and before the famine comes, we come to Genesis chapter 41 look there with me.

Genesis chapter 41 before the years of famine came two sons were born to Joseph bypass enough daughter upon Pharaoh, priest of all. And Joseph named his firstborn, Manasseh, and said it is because God has made me forget all my trouble in all my father's house. The second son. He named Ephraim and said it is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.

So Joseph has been despised by his family thrown into a pit sold into slavery falsely accused lied about falsely imprisoned left into obscurity and then promoted to all of second in command of Egypt and now God has given them to science. Once the family is reunited, and Jacob discovers that Joseph, his favorite son is alive.

After all these years and the forgiveness that comes up out of Joseph and the reunion of this family when the greatest scenes in all the Bible and when Joseph after this reunion comes to understand that his father Jacob who is now named Israel the Jacob. Now Israel is coming near to the time of his death and what Joseph wants more than anything else is to get his two boys Ephraim and Manasseh, and get them over to Jacob so that Jacob could blessed them shows you again the significance and power of the blessing that is spoken from that Hebrew preacher turned to Genesis chapter 48 to see the scene sometime later, Joseph was told your father is ill, so he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him.

When Jacob was told your son Joseph has come to you, Israel rallied his strength and set up on the bed. Look at verse five now then this is what he saying to Joseph your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as my Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine. Just as Reuben and Simeon on my was tantamount to in adopting innocence. Joseph sans such that they become alongside of all the tribes of Israel. Any children born to you after them will be yours in the territory they inherit.

They will be reckoned under the names of their brothers when Israel verse eight Saul the sons of Joseph yes who are these that the signs God has given me here.

Joseph said to his father.

Then Israel sent bring them to me so I may bless them.

How does the granddaddy feel when he thought that his son was dead and now he sees his sons face and also realizes not only with his son not dead, but he has to grandsons.

He didn't know of. Come mean less that Israel's eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see.

So Joseph brought his sons close to him and his father kiss them and embrace them. Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face again and now God is allowed me to see your children to and Joseph remove them from Israel's knees and bowed down with his face to the ground and Joseph took both of them Ephraim on his right, towards Israel's left hand and Manasseh on his left towards Israel's right hand and brought them close to him… Make sure we understand the picture that here is Joseph and he knows that that his father is nearly blind. So he's going to help him out by making sure that Manasseh is it Joseph left hand as he brings them forward because that's going to put Manasseh at Israel's right hand and is going to put Ephraim the younger at Israel's Jacob's left hand. So the idea here is that, make sure that the older one gets the right hand of blessing, because the hand is the one that is significant of the greater blessing of the greater strength of the of the greater favor the greater inheritance in the right hand as I easily bring some in the proper way to to Jacob by verse 14 but Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim's head, though he was the younger and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh's head. Even though Manasseh was the firstborn. Now Joseph is seeing all of this taking place so his hands are now crossed is the right hand crossed over to go onto Ephraim's head. Even though Ephraim was the younger here we are again. The younger one getting greater blessing and verse 15 he blessed Joseph and he said made the God before my fathers Abraham and Isaac. While the God is been my shepherd all alive to this day, the angel who delivered me from all may he bless these boy may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac and me.

They increase greatly upon the earth meet understand what he is saying here seek the 12 boys of Jacob are the 12 tribes, but Jacob has now said Ephraim and Manasseh. They are as my own.

Just like Reuben and Simeon are just like you are Joseph.

Good stuff today. Alan my universality in God's listening to us is what he gives us and we get more with Alan coming up in just a moment. He'll be back offering some additional insights in the final word today of the regular finale might ministries for quite some time now. God has used every one of us messages broadcast hadn't really hit home, and special rates in gratitude of more than a decade of radio we have assembled the most powerful messages each year. The first time I put into gathering.

One special album when you make a gift to Alan might ministries this month.

We went to Alan Wright's top 10 CD album digital download. Are you ready for some good news your gifting to discover God's grace afresh with Alan Wright's top 10 at the first decade the gospel is shared when you get to Alan might ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you get today. We will send you get a special offer.

We are happy to send this to you as I thanks from Alan might ministries call us at 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website past Rowan.work for today was to take home. Well this Ephraim and Manasseh story is absolutely amazing and will finish this up tomorrow Daniel to see that in this moment that this patriarch of Israel crosses his hands and he blesses the younger one rather than the older and we see the son who didn't deserve to be blessed get the blessing and the one who was quote entitled to it. Get the lesser of the blessing you can't help that I give the little will giveaway you can't help but see Jesus and we're going to see how this all wraps up in this beautiful picture of the gospel Jesus the firstborn son. And we, the second and third born sons and daughters and how it is that God's right hand is been extended to us. It's amazing but it is the gospel that in Christ we are last today's good news message is a listener supported production Alan White ministries