Strange, isn’t it? The one born first is never the firstborn. Because grace triumphs over law.
In Genesis 47, Jacob acknowledges, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years” (v 9). Though the family is settled in Goshen, the patriarch still considers himself a pilgrim. He isn’t home yet. “Beloved,” as Peter would say, “I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Pet 2:11). Don’t drive your tent pegs in too deep; don’t let Egypt’s attractions do damage to your soul. Now imagine the scene as Joseph brings his old father in to meet Pharaoh—the ruler of the world’s superpower. “And Jacob blessed Pharaoh” (v 7)! Remember: “Beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better” (Heb 7:7). Now time passes. Next time we see Jacob he is 147. Joseph gets word that he is ailing. There were some important things still on his bucket list. First, he wants Joseph to swear an oath that Jacob’s bones would not be buried in Egypt—the land, by the way, with the most amazing graves in the world! He wanted his body interred at Machpelah with the other patriarchs. Joseph agreed. Second, Jacob had been thinking about his early desire for the double blessing of the firstborn and the devious way he went about getting it. That would never do now; he had learned too much about God’s grace. But he really felt Joseph, the firstborn son of the woman he should have had for his wife, Rachel, was the deserving one. What if he adopted Joseph’s two boys and gave them each a portion? That’s it! And that’s how love found a way. But when Joseph maneuvered his older son, Manasseh, under Jacob’s right hand, and Ephraim to the left, Jacob shrewdly crossed his hands. It is not by right of law but by grace that God’s blessing comes!