Slideshow image

God’s Crossed Hand Of Blessing

“Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn).” (Genesis 48:14)

 

God surprises us with unexpected blessings. In Genesis 48 as Jacob prepares to bless his grandsons, he exclaims to Joseph how God has blessed Jacob by letting him not only see Joseph again, but his grandsons as well. “Israel said to Joseph, ‘I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also’” (Genesis 48:11).

 

Jacob had not expected to see Joseph again because Joseph’s brothers had convinced Jacob that Joseph was dead. They had his bloodied coat, their testimony, and then there was the twenty-two years that Joseph had been missing—in Egypt. An unexpected blessing that Jacob was delighted to receive.

 

Sometimes, however, God’s unexpected blessing is not exactly what we were hoping for from God. A child, but with a disability. A marriage, but with a struggle. A job, but with a difficult boss.  God blesses us, but we might have preferred a different kind of blessing from him.

 

This happened here to Joseph. Joseph came to his father, Jacob, hoping that his firstborn son, Manasseh, would receive the best blessing. But as Joseph presents his sons, Manasseh in front of Jacob’s right hand—the hand of the better blessing—and Ephraim in front of his left, Jacob crosses his hands. “Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn)” (Genesis 48:14).

 

Joseph actually tries to correct Jacob, grabbing his right hand to redirect it to Manasseh. But Jacob, obedient to God, will not comply. “But his father refused and said, ‘I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations’” (Genesis 48:19).

 

In effect, Joseph was telling Jacob that Manasseh as the firstborn deserved the better blessing. The incredible irony is that no one in that meeting actually deserved any blessing as the firstborn. Jacob had been blessed, but he was second born to Esau. Joseph was being blessed as the firstborn although he was 11th born! Joseph’s sons are being blessed as Jacob’s sons, but they are actually his grandsons, who should wait a generation for their inherited blessing.

 

Literally no one there, including Joseph, deserves the blessing they receive. Yet Joseph has the hubris to demand that Manasseh deserves God’s blessing because he is Joseph’s firstborn.

 

But here is reality. God’s blessing always only comes to us by grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Since we cannot earn or deserve God’s blessing, he is free to choose in his love and wisdom how best to bless. None of us can ever rightly demand a particular blessing from God.

Since it is all of grace, all from God’s free choice as to whom he will bless, with what kind of blessing, and how much blessing he dispenses, we really cannot try to uncross God’s hand of blessing. We cannot bargain with God, insisting that he gives us a different kind of blessing.


But don’t we, like Joseph, try to uncross God’s hand of blessing all the time? “Lord, thanks for my home, but that home would be so much nicer.” “Lord, thanks for my work, but that job would be much better.” “Lord, thanks for my wealth, but their wealth would be even more wonderful.”

 

What do we do with the reality of God’s crossed hand of blessing?

 

First, we must recognize that while it may be unexpected, different than we wanted perhaps, it is still undeserved. It is of grace, so it is actually better than we deserve. While we did not earn it, Christ did. All the blessings that come to us come because Christ, dying in our place, has earned reward for us as his people. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3).

 

Which means, second, that we should receive the blessing God offers to us joyfully. Our Father, who knows how to give good gifts to his children, will bless us. He will not give us a stone or a snake, although it may seem like it for the moment.

 

The next time God’s crosses his hand of blessing in your life, rather than struggle to uncross his hand, insisting that God owes you better, as Joseph did, receive his blessing with a grateful heart. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3).