Covenantal Adoption and the Everlasting Possession Text: Genesis 48:1-7
Introduction: The Government of God's House
We live in a sentimental age, an age that has reduced the family to a Hallmark card. For modern man, family is about feelings, personal fulfillment, and emotional support systems. But the Bible presents the family as something far more robust, something far more central to the history of the world. The family is a government, a covenantal institution with a king, a dominion, and a succession plan. What we are about to witness here in Genesis 48 is not a tender deathbed scene from a modern soap opera. It is a solemn act of state. It is a transfer of covenantal inheritance, a legal proceeding with ramifications that will echo down through all of history, shaping nations and defining the course of redemption.
Jacob, now Israel, is on his deathbed. But a patriarch's work is not done until he has secured the future according to the promises of God. He is not just a dying father; he is a prophet, a priest, and a king, and he is acting in all three offices. He is looking backward to the foundational promise of God, and he is looking forward to the fulfillment of that promise in the land. Our culture, which has abandoned God, has consequently abandoned any concept of legacy, inheritance, or multi-generational purpose. We live for the moment, for the self, and we consume our inheritance. But the patriarchs lived for the future. They were planting trees whose shade they would never enjoy because they believed the promise of God.
In this passage, we see the aged patriarch, weak in body but strong in spirit, take decisive action to order his house. He is not passive. He is not waiting for things to happen. He summons his strength, sits up in his bed, and legislates. He adopts his grandsons, elevating them to the status of sons, and in so doing, he strategically shapes the future twelve tribes of Israel. This is an act of raw, covenantal authority. It is a demonstration that God's purposes are not thwarted by geography, by age, by political circumstances, or even by death. God's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and He governs it through the covenant heads He appoints. What happens in this bedroom in Egypt is more significant for the history of the world than anything happening in Pharaoh's throne room.
The Text
Now it happened after these things that Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is sick.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him. Then it was told to Jacob, “Behold, your son Joseph has come to you,” so Israel strengthened himself and sat up in the bed. Then Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply, and I will make you an assembly of peoples, and I will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.’ So 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. But your kin that have been born after them shall be yours; they shall be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritance. Now as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, in the land of Canaan on the journey, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).
(Genesis 48:1-7 LSB)
Summoning Strength for Covenant Business (v. 1-2)
We begin with the catalyst for this crucial event.
"Now it happened after these things that Joseph was told, 'Behold, your father is sick.' So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him. Then it was told to Jacob, 'Behold, your son Joseph has come to you,' so Israel strengthened himself and sat up in the bed." (Genesis 48:1-2)
Notice the deliberate actions here. Joseph, upon hearing of his father's illness, does not come alone. He brings his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. He understands that this is not merely a personal visit. This is about the future, about the covenant. He is bringing the next generation to the patriarch for a reason. He is presenting them for the blessing he knows is his to receive in some form. Joseph is the ruler of Egypt, but he knows where the real authority lies. It lies with this old man in the bed, because this old man is the conduit of the promises of God Almighty.
And look at Jacob's response. He is sick, he is dying, but when he hears that Joseph has come, "Israel strengthened himself and sat up in the bed." The text pointedly uses his covenant name, Israel, the one who strives with God. This is not Jacob, the frail old man, mustering his last bit of energy. This is Israel, the prince of God, rising to his official duties. He is about to engage in a solemn act of governance, and he will not do it lying down. He sits up, taking the posture of a king on his throne, which, in this case, is his bed. This is a picture of dominion. Even in weakness, the man of God is to be about his Father's business. There is work to be done, a legacy to secure, a blessing to bestow. Frailty is no excuse for abdication.
The Foundation of the Blessing (v. 3-4)
Before Jacob acts, he lays the foundation. He grounds his authority not in himself, but in a prior, sovereign act of God.
"Then Jacob said to Joseph, 'God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and He said to me, "Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply, and I will make you an assembly of peoples, and I will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession."'" (Genesis 48:3-4 LSB)
Jacob's mind goes back to the bedrock of his entire life: the divine encounter at Luz, which he renamed Bethel, the House of God. He is reminding Joseph, and himself, that what he is about to do is not based on personal whim or paternal affection. It is based on a direct revelation and a binding promise from God Himself. He identifies God as "God Almighty," El Shaddai. This is the name God used with Abraham when He established the covenant of circumcision (Genesis 17:1). It is the name of God as the all-sufficient, all-powerful promise-keeper. Jacob is saying, "What I am about to do is backed by the full might of the one who can bring life from death and fulfill His word against all odds."
He rehearses the core components of the Abrahamic covenant. First, fruitfulness: "I will make you fruitful and multiply." Second, peoplehood: "I will make you an assembly of peoples." And third, land: "I will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession." This is crucial. They are in Egypt, the breadbasket of the world, living in comfort in the land of Goshen. But Jacob's heart and his hope are not in Egypt. They are in Canaan. He is reminding Joseph that Egypt is a temporary residence, not their home. The promise is about the land, and it is an everlasting possession. This is a forward-looking, postmillennial faith. Jacob believes God's promises will be fulfilled in history, on earth, in that specific parcel of real estate. He is acting on that confidence.
The Act of Covenant Adoption (v. 5-6)
Grounded in God's promise, Jacob now performs the central act of this scene.
"So 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. But your kin that have been born after them shall be yours; they shall be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritance." (Genesis 48:5-6 LSB)
This is a formal, legal adoption. Jacob elevates his grandsons to the status of his own sons. Notice the precision: "Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are." He is placing them on equal footing with his firstborn sons. Why does he do this? He is ensuring that Joseph, the faithful son, receives the double portion, which was the right of the firstborn. Reuben, the actual firstborn, forfeited that right through his sin (Genesis 35:22). So, instead of one tribe of Joseph, there will now be two tribes descending from him, Ephraim and Manasseh. Joseph's faithfulness is being rewarded with a double inheritance in the promised land.
This is a sovereign act. Jacob doesn't ask Joseph's permission. He declares it: "are mine." This is the authority of a patriarch. He is structuring the nation. He is arranging the tribes. Furthermore, this act is a profound statement of faith. These boys were born in Egypt. Their mother was Egyptian, the daughter of a pagan priest. By all natural reasoning, they belonged to Egypt. But by this act of covenant adoption, Jacob is snatching them out of Egypt and planting them firmly in the soil of the covenant with Abraham. He is saying that birthright is not determined by blood or by geography, but by the sovereign word of the covenant head. This is a picture of our own adoption. We who were born in the Egypt of sin, strangers and aliens, have been adopted into the family of God, not by our own merit, but by His sovereign declaration in Christ.
The Sorrow and the Promise (v. 7)
The chapter concludes with a seemingly abrupt and poignant memory.
"Now as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, in the land of Canaan on the journey, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)." (Genesis 48:7 LSB)
Why does Jacob bring this up now? Is it just the rambling of an old man? Not at all. This is deeply connected to what he has just done. Joseph was Rachel's firstborn. By adopting Joseph's two sons, he is honoring his beloved, lost wife. He is ensuring that the line of Rachel, the wife he truly loved, will have a preeminent place in the nation. The double portion is being given to Rachel's son.
But there is more. Where was Rachel buried? On the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. Jacob's sorrow is tied to a specific place in the promised land. By mentioning this, he is once again anchoring his family's identity and future in Canaan. He is saying, "Our history, our love, our sorrow, our hope, it is all buried in that land. That is where we belong." The grave of Rachel was a stake in the ground, a claim on the land. It was a testimony that even in death, they belonged to the land of promise. And of course, we know that this town, Bethlehem, would one day be the birthplace of the ultimate son of the promise, the one who would secure the everlasting possession for all of God's adopted children.
Jacob's sorrow is real. The life of faith is not a life without pain. But notice that his sorrow does not paralyze him. It does not lead him to despair. Instead, it fuels his covenantal faithfulness. He remembers his sorrow, and in the same breath, he acts to secure the future blessing. This is mature faith. It acknowledges the pain of the past while resolutely building for the future on the foundation of God's unbreakable promises. The memory of Rachel's tomb on the road to Bethlehem is not a detour from the business at hand; it is the very heart of it. It is a reminder that our deepest sorrows and our highest hopes are all wrapped up in the promises of God, which find their ultimate fulfillment in a son who would be born in that very same town.