In many nations rooted and built on Christian values, new ideas and ideologies are being tried that sound Christian too, like the new religion of ‘Diversity, Inclusion and Equity’ and its offshoots of justice, accessibility and belonging. 

It sounds really good too, but how is it working out in practice? – taking into account Jesus’ advice in Matthew 7:15, to “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Fortunately, verse 16, “By their fruit you will recognize them.”

The same could be said of Christianity too, of course, because we’ve got 2,000 years of Christian practice to look back on to judge it by its fruits too. Has Christianity, for instance, done more harm than good, or more good than harm? Or, since we’re all fallible human beings, has Christianity, despite its obvious faults and horrific blunders, at least come up with a record that shows it’s been better for the world than what non-Christians have come up with?   

But how does one judge that? Christians and non-Christians have both shown they are capable of doing good and even great deeds, but equally horrible deeds too. We can name names and historical records of both good and bad on both sides. And it’s amazing how quite evil people can do loving things, while supposedly loving people in the Christian fold can hate, shoot to kill, follow tyrannical leaders, and be just as unforgiving, arrogant, judgmental and jealous as non-Christians. 

So why is Christianity so good for the world? Because it’s meant to create people who “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to building each other up,” Romans 14:19, based on the dawning realization that “anyone who serves Christ in this way is deeply pleasing to God – and passes the trust test with people too” (18). 

Peace, therefore, becomes the driving force in a Christian’s life, just as it will be for Jesus when he sets up his government on earth in Isaiah 9:7. In the meanwhile, we get the chance to see and learn what God means by peace and how it works in practice. Taking into account that the kind of peace Jesus promised in John 14:27 is nothing like what this world comes up with to create peace. His peace is beyond our best efforts, and beyond what we can even imagine too (Philippians 4:7). But we can judge by the fruits in our lives and the lives of others if it works. So “What is peace God-style like?”….(next blog) 

Jacob pronounces an amazing blessing on his son Joseph, starting in Genesis 48:15 and finishing off in verse 20, when Jacob says to Joseph, “In your name (Joseph) will Israel pronounce this blessing: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”

Jacob was right too, because Israelites and Jews have been pronouncing that very blessing on their sons for centuries, and still do today. With good reason too, when taking into account how Jacob’s blessing on Joseph unfolded in Joseph’s life first of all, because Joseph had an enormous impact on the Egyptians and the world where he grew up. 

When Joseph got permission from the Pharaoh in Genesis 50:5-6 to go back to Canaan to bury his father, “All Pharaoh’s officials accompanied him – the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt” (7).

The whole lot went with Joseph, all the top officials running the country. “Chariots and horsemen also went up with him, it was a very large company” (9). And after several days travelling and feeding that huge company and finally arriving at Jacob’s burial spot, they all “lamented loudly and bitterly” while Joseph “observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father” (10). And they were all willing to do this because of their deep respect for Joseph. Not only had he impacted their world, he’d impacted these Egyptians personally too.

Which brought to mind what Christianity has done to people and the nations where it has grown too. Because we’re now discovering what happens when Christian nations ditch their Christian heritage for man-made alternatives. And especially in those nations that many have thought are the modern day manifestation of the original Ephraim and Manasseh, on whom Jacob’s blessing was pronounced.

Because a child could colour in the nations on a map where Christianity took root and prospered, due to the obvious and enormous impact on those nations’ economies and well being. Which ties in so well with God’s promise to Abraham to bless the whole world, because when people cotton on to what Christ accomplished in his death, and now in his resurrection, the nations in which they live change hugely for the better, and so do the people – just as they did in Joseph’s day.  

In which case what is it about the Christian message that creates such an impact? Or put another way, “Why is Christianity so good for the world?”….(next blog)

Manasseh was Joseph’s oldest son, but when Jacob blessed Joseph’s two boys he put Ephraim first. No reason is given at the time as to why Jacob did that, but in asking God to “bless these boys,” Genesis 48:16, Jacob somehow knew that God wanted Ephraim the younger of the two boys, and not the firstborn, to receive the “greater” blessing (19).

Is there a clue, then, in the names Joseph gave to his boys? For his oldest son, Joseph chose the name Manasseh, meaning “he that causes to forget,” Genesis 41:51, in memory of God giving Joseph cause to forget being ripped out of his family by his jealous brothers and being sold into slavery denying Joseph a normal childhood and a Dad who loved him. And anyone who’s been through that, knows it’s the worst thing that can happen to a growing boy, leaving him feeling very bitter toward his family, as we see later in how harshly Joseph treated his brothers in Egypt. To be able to put his past behind him, then, was a great blessing from God.

It’s also the great blessing Jesus made possible by his sacrifice, that’s enabled billions of people to put the past behind and wash it away like water down a plug hole, and be given a fresh start knowing all is forgiven – and being able to forgive too, just as Joseph was able to forgive his brothers. It’s an essential part of why the gospel message is good news.

But in the name Joseph gave his second son, Ephraim, there’s a blessing even greater. Ephraim meant “to be fruitful,” in memory of God making Joseph “fruitful in the land of my suffering,” Genesis 41:52. Which is what God has offered us in the resurrection of Jesus. Despite our past and despite the suffering of having to live in a world that has little interest in God, we can live a fruitful life, full of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

This is where Jesus put the emphasis with his disciples too, when he told them in John 15:16, “I chose you to go and bear fruit.” We can look forward, therefore, to a productive life, being “able to accomplish infinitely more than we even think to ask for or dream of, through his power working in us,” Ephesians 3:20. So this part of the blessing looks forward to a lifetime of wonderful changes in us. Putting the past behind is great – but a lifetime of growth is even better, which is why Jacob put Ephraim first. Both are essential to the gospel message, which is why “May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh” is still a great blessing today – and not just for Jewish sons, it’s for the whole world, as we see in “The impact Joseph had on his world”….(next blog)

Around the world on Friday evenings a special blessing is wished upon Jewish sons, taken from Genesis 48:20 – “May you be like Ephraim and Manasseh.” But in the hope of what, exactly? 

Well, in verse 19, both boys were promised amazing blessings: Manasseh would become a great nation, and Ephraim an even greater group of nations. Jacob also included the blessing, “May they increase greatly upon the earth” (16), because in both boys inheriting “the names of Abraham and Isaac” they would also inherit the promise of a huge number of descendants that God made to Abraham (15:5) and Isaac (26:24), and to Jacob as well (28:14). So in wanting their sons to be like Ephraim and Manasseh, is it many children that Jewish fathers are hoping their sons will have, or that their boys will become great? 

But did the promised blessings for Ephraim and Manasseh come to pass? For Ephraim, yes, because Joshua was an Ephraimite and it was under his leadership that Israel became a “group of nations” or tribes, which did grow greatly in numbers. Unfortunately however, it was another Ephraimite, Jeroboam, who split the nation of Israel in two, whose evil deeds then led to ten of the northern tribes being taken into exile and never recovering their former state.

And Manasseh? Well, his descendants inherited the largest amount of usable land, making it a “great nation” within the tribes of Israel, but it too went into exile with Ephraim. So why would any father want his children to be like Ephraim and Manasseh? But clearly God had something in mind for the two boys to play their part in the fulfillment of his promise to Abraham to bless “all peoples on earth” (12:3) – a promise that still exists today too, but how?

There’s a clue in the boys’ names in Genesis 41. Joseph named Manasseh he that causes to forget, “because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household” (51). He named Ephraim to be fruitful, “because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering” (52). The two together are the two great blessings in the gospel message today: Jesus’ sacrifice gives us cause to forget all past troubles in life and family, and start afresh. And with his resurrection and the giving of the Spirit we become fruitful in our growing likeness to him. 

So, “May God make us like Ephraim and Manasseh” is a great blessing that’s alive and well today, because “The gospel was in their names” too….(next blog)

Hearing his father is ill Joseph drops by with his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, Genesis 48:1-2. On arrival, Jacob asks Joseph to bring the boys close to him so he can pronounce a blessing on them (8-10).

Joseph already knows that his Dad has made Ephraim and Manasseh the next in line to inherit the blessings God promised to Abraham (3-5), so he assumes that Manasseh being the oldest gets the special firstborn’s blessing. Jacob’s eyesight, however, has reached the point he can “hardly see” (10), so Joseph places Ephraim, the youngest of the two boys, close to Jacob’s left hand, and Manasseh the oldest to Jacob’s right hand (13) – the right hand signifying a special place of honour and pre-eminence, as in Jesus being seated at the “right hand of God” (Ephesians 1:19-21).

But with no explanation given, Jacob switches hands so that his right hand is now on Ephraim’s head, not Manasseh’s (14).

This does not go down well with Joseph. He’s thoroughly “displeased” (17), which in Hebrew indicates he felt his Dad was absolutely wrong doing this, and even bordering on evil, so he tries to remove Jacob’s right hand and put it back on Manasseh’s head, at the same time saying, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head” (17-18). And knowing how much Joseph revered his Dad (12), this must have really bothered him, enough for him to make such a challenge. 

But for years Joseph had been steeped in the importance of the firstborn son’s rights in Egyptian tradition (seen later in how devastated Egypt was by the killing of all their firstborn in Exodus 12:29-30). On the other hand,  Jacob had just blessed Joseph saying it was God who was “blessing these boys” (15-16), so Joseph didn’t need to doubt what his Dad was doing. And clearly his Dad did know what he was doing, because, as he also says in verse 15, “God has been my Shepherd all my life to this day,” which, therefore, would include that same day too. 

It was an awkward moment, but with years of experiencing being “delivered from all harm” (16), Jacob calmly replies in verse 19, “I know, my son, I know,” acknowledging his son’s concern, but at the same time refusing to budge his hands and continuing with what he’d asked Joseph to bring his two boys close to him for, which turned out to be “Two amazing blessings”….(next blog)

In Genesis 48:11, Jacob says to his son Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.” So Jacob put all this down to God’s doing, that it was God who’d allowed Joseph to be whisked off to Egypt, God who’d allowed Joseph to marry an Egyptian lady and have two half Egyptian children, and God who’d brought the family together again, with these two boys included. 

In the form of a blessing, then, Jacob wanted to get across to Joseph that God was behind all that had happened to their family to bring them to this point – and perhaps a very surprising point too, because in his blessing Jacob makes clear that God would now be continuing his plan for all humanity through Joseph’s half Egyptian sons.  

Jacob starts his blessing, therefore, with this in mind, when he says to Joseph in verse 15, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked” – to strike the point home that God began a plan through Abraham and Isaac, that became so real to them it was like they were “walking” with God every day. And the same for Jacob too, when he speaks next of “God who has been my Shepherd all my life to this day.” 

This is what God had wanted all three men to experience, that they’d know he was with them every day, guiding and shepherding them, which In Jacob’s experience, verse 16, also included “the Angel who has delivered me from all harm.” The messes Jacob had got into – whether his fault or the conniving of others – had made it obvious to Jacob by now that “the Angel” had got him through all of them.

But why did Jacob switch from “God” to “the Angel”? Well, this is the point where Jacob speaks of being protected from harm. He can look back on a life of being rescued again and again, and here he is near the end of his life, himself and his family fully restored. Which rather gives the game away as to who the Angel might be. because who’s the one in Scripture through whom we’re rescued and restored? 

Is Jacob then including Jesus in his blessing, to get the point across from his own experience that it’s through Jesus rescuing and restoring that God is fulfilling the plan he began with Abraham and Isaac? If so, then Jacob takes all that he’s just said and then says, “may he (God and Angel) bless these boys,” so that God’s plan of rescuing and restoring all humanity through Jesus will continue through them. But strangely this would involve “A switching of hands”….(next blog)

Before Jacob told his twelve sons “what will happen to you in days to come” in Genesis 49, he asked for his grandchildren, Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph’s sons, to be brought to him in Genesis 48:9. 

It’s the first mention in Scripture of a grandfather connecting with his grandchildren. Jacob would have known his grandfather Abraham, but no mention of a conversation between them or a relationship, and the same for Jacob’s children with their grandfather Isaac. 

But here’s Jacob asking for his two grandsons, with a relationship already well developed because he hugs and kisses them (10). It’s a happy scene, but there’s more to it than a grandfather enjoying his grandkids, because back in verse 5, Jacob “reckons these two boys as mine” (5), so that, verse 16, they “may be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.” 

Jacob, therefore, has already adopted Ephraim and Manasseh as his very own children. Which was quite the move on his part because Ephraim and Manasseh were half Egyptian. They were born to an Egyptian mother, Asenath (meaning ‘gift of the sun god’), who was also the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On (Genesis 41:45) – the city of On being the most important centre of Egyptian sun worship. 

These two boys, then, were born into a thoroughly pagan family on their mother’s side, but because Jacob had adopted them as his children, they’d become direct descendants of Abraham and Isaac too.  

So what’s going on here? Well, God promised Abraham that he’d bless the whole world through Abraham’s descendants, and now, because of Jacob making Ephraim and Manasseh Abraham’s descendants too, God was already including half Egyptian foreigners as inheritors of that blessing.

So this early in history, God was already making it clear through these two half Egyptian boys being adopted into Israel, that his goal, in Paul’s words, is to have all humanity as “no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,” Ephesians 2:19. God wants every human adopted into his family, and Jacob adopting these two half foreign boys into his family pictures that perfectly. So does what being in his family brings – as seen in “Jacob’s blessing on Joseph”….(next blog)

If only King Saul had wiped out the Amalekites as God instructed, because their brutality cropped up again in Esther’s day in Haman the Amalekite, whose sole aim was the total destruction of the Jews (Esther 3:8-14). 

And although the Amalekites disappeared as a tribe by that name, there are people today whose sole aim is also the total destruction of the Jews – and Christians – and blatantly stated in public too.

That being the case, what are we to do as Christians? God’s solution in the Old Testament was telling the Israelites in 1 Samuel 15:3 to “attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them, including men, women, children, infants and livestock” to “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven,” Deuteronomy 25:19. 

But because that wasn’t done we have Amalelite-like people in our world now displaying exactly the same aim and brutal attitude as the Amalekites of old. So, what is God’s solution today? Does he want Christians to wipe out Amalek and finish off what Israel failed to do?

Fortunately, God chose a second Saul, and a Benjamite too like King Saul, with an answer to that question from his own life, when he wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” So there was “fighting” involved, as well as successfully “finishing” off what he was fighting too, but it wasn’t by slicing the heads off all Amalekite-like people he met. It was by “keeping the faith” – the  simple faith that “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom,” verse 18. 

One such “evil attack” came when he was “given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me,” 2 Corinthians 12:7. Paul was attacked at his weakest, just like the Amalekites attacked the Israelites at their weakest. But Paul couldn’t swing a sword like the Israelites of old to wipe the problem out. And God wasn’t asking him to either, because when it came to evil in Paul’s life, it was by “Christ’s power resting on me” (9) that Paul learnt how the fight is won.

Which brings to mind Jacob’s original prophecy in Genesis 49:27 about Benjamin being a “ravenous wolf devouring its prey and dividing the plunder,” because was that also meant to picture Christ’s power, and what he’s like when dealing with the Amalekite-like attacks launched against us? If so, is there more we can learn about Jesus from Jacob’s grandchildren, “Ephraim and Manasseh,” too?….(next blog)

God took it personally (Exodus 17:16) when the Amalekites attacked his people on their way out of Egypt, especially when the Amalekites picked on the weak and vulnerable (Deuteronomy 25:17-19). He also made sure that Mordecai in the book of Esther was “held in high esteem” because he “worked for the good of his people, and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews,” Esther 10:3. So when it came to his people, whether it was good things happening to them or bad, God took it personally. 

He took things personally again 500 years after Mordecai, when Saul, later Paul, felt “convinced” in Acts 26:9, that he “should do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth,” and in Jerusalem he “put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death” he “cast his vote against them.” He also tried to force Christians into denying Jesus, and expanded his obsession against Christians into foreign cities too (10-11). 

But it was on his way to Damascus to create more mayhem for Christians that a blazing light shone and with it “a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’” (12-14). So this time it was Jesus taking things personally, and again because of what was happening to his people. 

But if you were a Jew on the receiving end of Saul’s “Amalekite-like” obsession with your destruction, it must’ve felt like God didn’t care at all. Why would he let this brutish man pick on his fledgling church threatening its very existence? Wasn’t this just like the Amalekites picking on the weak and vulnerable all over again?

Yes it was, which is why Jesus personally stopped Saul in his tracks, “appeared” to him personally, and “appointed” him as his personal “servant and witness of what you have seen of me (personally) and what I (personally) will show you” (16). And what Jesus showed Saul personally was his “unlimited patience” with the likes of him (1 Timothy 1:13, 16), so that Saul, now Paul, could ask and answer with conviction in Romans 11:1, “I say then, has God cast away his people? Certainly not!”

So here we have Paul, another Benjamite like Esther and Mordecai, confirming God’s care for his people, despite their history of failing him again and again. Which is good to know, because in the brutish attitude toward Jews and Christians now growing in our world, one cannot help wondering: “Do Amalekites still exist today?”….(next blog)

Even though God is not mentioned in the book of Esther, the message is clear: God does not forget.  

He did not forget what the Amalekites did to the Israelites on their way out of Egypt (Deuteronomy 25:17-19). He did not forget King Saul not destroying the Amalekites as instructed, nor King Saul allowing his men to plunder the Amalekites, rather than destroy everything the Amalekites owned (1 Samuel 15:3). And the proof that he did not forget all these things is the book of Esther. 

Because in Esther’s day another Amalekite, Haman, had appeared, who was just as determined to do to the Jews what his ancestors had done to Israel. But this time God had a couple of Benjamites ready for him, to finish off what their Benjamite ancestor, King Saul, didn’t do. As a result of Esther’s plea to King Xerxes to spare her people from Haman’s genocidal madness, Haman and all ten of his sons are killed and hanged, bringing an end to the Amalekite line of Haman. God had not forgotten what the Amalekites were like, and the need, therefore, to totally wipe them out. 

But why was it, when the Jews of Esther’s day were allowed by King Xerxes to kill all those who hated them, that the Jews “did not lay their hands on the plunder,” Esther 9:10? And it’s repeated twice more too, in verses 15 and 16. 

Well, what was King Saul’s reason for not destroying everything the Amalekites owned as God had instructed? It was “Saul and his army sparing the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs – everything (they deemed) as good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely” (1 Samuel 15:9). Under pressure Saul had given in to his men wanting to plunder the best for themselves. And that’s what led to God rejecting Saul as king, and replacing him with David.

When the chance then came up again 500 years later for the Jews to plunder their enemies, they didn’t do it. God had not forgotten the Saul debacle, and neither had they. And they planned to never forget it too, because they made this entire incident a time to “be remembered and observed in every generation,” Esther 9:28. 

They’d learnt an important lesson from 500 years of God not forgetting, that when “Amalekite-like” psychopaths seek to destroy his people, “God takes things personally”….(next blog)