Significant Revival

 

Significant Revival

Genesis 41: ⁵⁰ And to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him. ⁵¹ Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.” ⁵² And the name of the second he called Ephraim: “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

 

============

 

Sometime during the years of plenty, Joseph had two sons Manasseh and Ephriam. Asenath, an Egyptian daughter of a priest who worshipped Ra the sun god, is mentioned for the second time.

 

My Observations:

• Asenath influenced her sons to live as Egyptians.
• Manasseh would later struggle with GOD
• Ephriam would become a huge tribe, yet would also struggle with GOD.

 

The birth of these two sons was so significant to GOD, that one of the tribes, Dan, was replaced in the book of Revelation with Manasseh. My guess is Manasseh was born somewhere around year three of the famine and Ephriam was born around year five. I have no factual basis for the numbers other than Joseph was extremely busy storing up food for Egypt.

 

Joseph struggled with being separated from his father. He may have thought of Jacob every day. Joseph may have learned how to manage people from Jacob. Naming Manasseh “Making me forget my sorrow” indicates He missed his father. Naming Ephriam “Double fruitfulness” was done after collecting so much food that the amount could not be counted.

 

Joseph recognized that he was in a land that afflicted him. He had been taken from his father, enslaved  and imprisoned. This land started off as a place of doom. BUT GOD healed the situation and made Joseph fruitful in all he did.

 

Challenge

• Why does GOD tell Moses about the birth of Joseph’s son in such detail?
• Have you ever come out of a trial and remembered what you went through?
• Does GOD’s revival of you have to come in the way you think?