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In the course of his precarious life, Jacob found that the promise of God never failed. He had learned to trust. It is now time for the promise to be passed on to succeeding generations. They, too, must learn to trust the promise. Jacob is now ill (v.1). There remains one final task for him to perform. It is the one item that is cited in Heb 11:21 to epitomize Jacob’s faith pilgrimage. Joseph and his two sons are summoned to Jacob’s deathbed, where the patriarch blesses Ephraim and Manasseh (vv.8-20) by calling on the God who had protected him (v.15) and redeemed him (v.16, possibly a reference to Penuel).
In claiming the two grandsons as his own (48-5) and blessing them, Jacob binds Ephraim and Manasseh to the promise. It cannot pass without notice that the primary blessing is given to the younger boy (v.14) despite Joseph’s protests (vv.17-18). It is a gentle reminder of a similar occasion in Jacob’s youth when the claims of primogeniture were upset. In both instances, the younger brother is placed before the older (v.20; cf. 27:36). This time, however, Ephraim does not secure the greater blessing through devious, underhanded cunning. He receives it with quiet resignation. How much different Jacob’s life would have been had that been the case in his own youth.