1. THE ADOPTION 1-7 a. Joseph is summoned. After this, Joseph is informed that his father is ill and so he goes to him in his time of need. We have seen in the stories of Joseph that he has been obedient to and loves his father. Though Joseph is second in all of Egypt and has many responsibilities, these do not stop him from attending to his father. The law tells us that we are to honor our father and mother. This does not change though we age and life circumstances change. If we are going to love our God with our heart, soul, mind and strength then we must honor our parents. b. Jacob gathers his strength. When Joseph arrives at his father’s home, Jacob is informed that Joseph had come. Jacob does his best to summon his strength though he is lying in his death bed. Even though death is encroaching, Jacob carries himself with dignity and acts in a way that is in the proportion of the important responsibility that he has as one that carries the promises of God. c. Jacob recites the promises. Jacob takes the opportunity in this visit from Joseph to explain that he is going to adopt his sons. First, Jacob begins with reciting the promises of God. This is a proper and good thing to do as ultimately everything that we do ought to be grounded in the promises of God. Jacob recounts what God told him at Bethel when he had returned there after the many years of sojourning with his uncle Laban. There are two differences between what God says in chapter 35 and what Jacob says here. First, Jacob leaves out the promise that kings shall come from your own body. This could have something to do with his blessing of his other sons in chapter 49. The son that he specifically mentions having kings is Judah even though other tribes, like Benjamin with king Saul, would also provide a king. This hints at the idea that Jacob knew that the blessing of kings, though it could have a wide application, was more narrowly focused. The second change in Jacob’s account is the addition of the phrase “an everlasting possession.” Again, is this an error? No, because God told that to Abraham in Genesis 17. Jacob shows us the continuation of the covenant that God made with Abraham. The promises that Abraham received are the very same promises that Jacob has received. d. Jacob adopts the boys. In verses 5-6 we have the actual adoption declaration. Jacob announces that Ephraim and Manasseh would be his sons just as Reuben and Simeon are. Though we do not have any other children of Joseph recorded in the Bible, if Joseph had any other children they would all be counted as either part of the tribe of Ephraim or Manasseh and could not become a separate tribe. Here we have another piece of how Israel ended up as a twelve tribe nation. e. Jacob’s sorrow. Verse 7 has puzzled people over the centuries. Not because the sentence itself is hard to understand but because of its location in the narrative. We can only speculate as to why, and people have come up with various theories, but we know what he is talking about. We read the account back in Genesis 35. The emphasis of that account and the one here in chapter 48 seems to be the location of Rachel’s tomb. Both mention the fact that it is about 2 hours from the city of Ephrath which is Bethlehem. And in chapter 35 Moses puts the note in that the pillar of Rachel’s tomb was still there in his day. Also, we can’t help but notice that Jacob on his death bed mentions the sorrow that the death of his Rachel brought him. We talked about the love at first sight that Jacob had for Rachel back when we read of their first meeting. And now we see that his love for her carried on even until his death many years later.