Like Joseph, perhaps you were disap pointed at the time but oh, how we need to thank God for His wisdom, and the fact that He has applied it unto our lives when our finite minds have not been able to see its infinite value! As we read of these two men, Eph raim and Manasseh (sons of Joseph) who found themselves as two tribes of Israel while their father Joseph never found himself to have become a tribe in name — we leam that these two men each had a stone on the breast plate of the High Priest. Although Ephraim and Manasseh found a place upon the breastplate, they were never named on the shoulder stones as Ja cob’s sons by birth — they were really his grandsons. Joseph little realized all that was pertaining to the name Ephraim. As already stated, Ephraim means doubly fruitful and when Jacob set him above his own brother Manasseh and bestowed upon him the blessing of the firstborn, he became the inheritor of a double portion of the firstborn. As far as his tory records for us, Joseph had no oth er children apart from Ephraim and Manasseh who were born to him of a Gentile wife in Egypt. The increase of Joseph’s posterity was therefore in these two sons and especially in the son called Ephraim. The Book of Genesis closes by record ing that Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. When the tribes of Israel were numbered, Ephraim stood at 40,500 as over against Manasseh with only 32,000, Moses gives us exactly the same thought in the Book of Deuter onomy, chapter 33 — verses 16 and 17, in which the simple meaning lies, that the strength of the advance of Jo seph and the establishment of his fam ily was in his two boys — particularly in Ephraim, his second born son who received the blessing of the firstborn. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” II Cor. 4:17. Every believer should have this pas sage graven upon the depths of his heart as a foundation of action in faith.
Certainly this did not appear to be true in the life of Joseph at the offset. He might easily have asked, why did my brothers hate me? Why did God allow this to happen to me for it was no fault of mine that my father favored me in a gift of the multi-colored coat. Why did they misunderstand my dreams — I never told the truth with any pride or conceit in my heart. When in Shechem, why did I return home instead of pursuing them to the land of Goshen? Why did that caravan of traders come along just at that particu lar time so that I should be sold down into the land of Egypt? Why did I receive evil for doing good — why, why, why? These are some of the ques tions that Joseph might have asked — even as you and I do in this day. But, should anyone of Joseph’s ex periences have been taken from his life, the sequence of events would have been broken down and he would never have found his way to the second throne of Egypt; neither would he have been given, by Pharaoh, the name of Zaph- nath-Paaneah, which means the saviour of the world. Yes, these things done to him were meant for evil, but God meant it all for good. A life which is lived in sub mission to the Lord is always overruled for the good of the believer and the glory of God! When it comes to the matter of the stone which was representative of Eph raim on the breastplate of the High Priest,, we find it to be the most puz zling of all the stones. We are told that the word is quite foreign to the Heb rew 'language and it seems that it is all but impossible to trace its origin. However, it is quite widely accepted that the stone is the Jacinth. Ancient historical documents inform us that the Jacinth was a favorite stone with travelers who believed that it gave protection against the two things most dreaded by travelers in the ancient world: plagues and wounds. Traveling was a perilous business for pilgrims in those days and they were glad for any promised security. (continued on next page) 15
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