B u S y *" r a d io m e s s a g e s / t h e t w e l v e st o n e s in t h e b r e a s t p l a t e o f t h e 1 HIGH PRIEST _________ „ — ......... MANASSEH: the agate by Dr. Lloyd T. Anderson
an understanding of Jacob’s act in this thing. This is the sixth time that such an act has been performed by Jacob in the affairs of Joseph. It was a show ing of preference for him by his fa ther, that created the hatred of his own brethren for him. Jacob loved Jo seph and he made a point of letting the other sons know this. Now Jacob is doing it again in the blessing of Eph raim and Manasseh, over the protest of Joseph for he well knew that such things on the part of his father had brought him into very deep waters. The vital point in this is what Ja cob did. He departed from custom as he had the right to bestow the blessing upon whom he might choose. Perhaps Jacob detected something in the char acter of Ephraim that was more sted- fast or maybe it was the direct guid ance of God! Of one thing we must be assured — the Lord knows our lives from the beginning to the end and He will mete out His blessing accord ing to His divine wisdom. Let us think rather sharply as we consider this act of blessing: while this means blessing for the receiver, it does not necessarily mean judgment for the person who did not receive this particular favor. Among the many islands of our ocean and sea waters, we shall draw from among them the island of Sicily, which has, in many ways, played an important part in the affairs of men and of nations. In olden times the agate was found in Sicily, in the River Acha tes (French spelling of agate) from which it took its name. Now in the great Latin poem — Virgil’s AENEID, (continued on next page) 17
T h e study to which we give thought at this point, is of Manasseh a man who underwent rather severe dealing in the matter of the bestowal of blessing by his grandfather Jacob. The agate, the gem which represented him on the breastplate, has a singu lar origin and we want to entwine the study of the man and the history of the gem, rather than take them sep arately, as heretofore. The comments of three men are bas ic to our study of Manasseh and we give them to you here: Joseph — Genesis 41:51 — “And Jo seph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.” Jacob — Genesis 48:16 — “And the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of file earth.” Moses — Deuteronomy 33:17 — “His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his. horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.” We would do well to keep in mind the fact that no reason, whatever, ap pears to be given as to why Jacob re versed the blessing and gave the bless ing of the firstborn to the second son Ephraim. Manasseh was blessed with the second blessing. There is no evi dence of sin, slackness, or unworthiness in his character that would lead us to
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