February 14

February 14.

Jacob & the Blessings -- Jacob passes on God's blessing before he dies.

Today's Readings:

Reading 1: Genesis 48

Reading 2: Genesis 49:29-33

Reading 3: Hebrews 11:20-21

In the patriarchal system, great worth is bestowed by the blessing from father to son(s) and we have seen the significance of this blessing in earlier stories (especially Jacob and Esau). Now the old deceiver (Jacob), who valued the birthright and the blessing more than his godless brother Esau, is ready to die and blesses his favorite son Joseph, and his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, adopting them as his own.

Interestingly, Jacob deliberately reverses their order, placing Ephraim first, while blessing them both. And the writer to the Hebrews tells us that all this was by faith - in other words trusting God was the source of the actions and the blessings that followed.

This brings us to consider our own experiences again. Have you ever been favored more than someone else? Whether you deserved that or not, it was God's guidance behind the favoring. Now consider the opposite case - someone is favored more highly than you, undeservedly; how would you respond? A lesson for us from this story is that God wants to bless, and even when He does not bless according to our priorities or sense of fairness, He still blesses!

Reflect on this, and discuss together.

May He bless you today!

Have a great day.

Mark.