Seize the Moment – Day 444
Blessing the Next Generation!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, June 4.
Are you willing to have your name become less so that God’s will can be done through you?
Genesis 48:5 is a powerful moment in the life of Joseph as his father Israel makes Joseph’s two sons his own: “Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.”
Amazingly, after the Exodus from Egypt and during the Conquest of the Promised Land, Joseph’s two sons each receive a full inheritance of land. It is not the tribe of Joseph, but rather the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. As Israel explains to Joseph in Genesis 48:22, “I give you one portion more than your brothers.”
Four hundred years later we see this fulfilled in Numbers 1:32-35, “Of the sons of Joseph, namely, of the sons of Ephraim, … their numbered men of the tribe of Ephraim were 40,500. Of the sons of Manasseh, … their numbered men of the tribe of Manasseh were 32,200.”
It is no longer Joseph’s tribe who would be counted, but Ephraim’s tribe and Manasseh’s tribe. Joseph was willing to say, “They must increase, but I must decrease.” To this day, take a look at a Bible map of the tribal allotments of land for Israel and you will see that the name of Joseph is not once shown; rather, you will see Ephraim and Manasseh.
Over a thousand years later, John the Baptist followed Joseph’s example and said about Jesus in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Seize the moment and humble yourself so that the next generation may come to know Jesus Christ and be used by God to do great things for God’s glory.