The Ephraim and Manasseh Blessing [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Jesus began His ministry by speaking a series of blessings. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And when Jesus was teaching, people just wanted to bring their little children to Him.

Why? So He'd bless them. I tell you with almost a hundred percent certainty, when those little children came up to Jesus and He put His hands on them, He would say many things to them, but He was certainly saying, May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in a series on blessing the Ephraim and Manasseh blessing as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina.

If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It's a flip style desk devotional for your kitchen counter or your desktop that's filled with blessing for every day of the month. This 30 day flip style calendar comes from Pastor Alan's latest book, The Power to Bless, and it's yours free for your donation this month as our thank you gift to Alan Wright Ministries.

As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer, truly a unique item. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Or you can call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Now, more on this later in the program, but right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here's Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? Yes. It is a new year. That's all I need to say. It's a new year. Wave bye-bye to 2020. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. It's funny the things that people have been saying throughout the pandemic.

You know, we got to laugh sometimes to keep from crying. Some of my favorites, 2020 is a unique leap year. Someone wrote it's been 29 days in February, 300 days in March, and five years in April. It never felt like that.

Yeah, I know. I don't even know why this was funny, but it was funny to me. 2020 is like a Nicolas Cage movie without Nicolas Cage. I don't even know why it's funny. I think maybe he played in a lot of movies that have been terrible, except for He Was In It. Maybe that was it. I don't know. I asked the pastor, Chris, I said, what's funny about that?

He said, because all the movies he plays in stuff blows up all the time. Maybe that's it. I don't know.

I don't know. I think this one's pretty funny. Someone wrote coronavirus has turned us all into dogs. We roam the house looking for food. We're told no if we get too close to strangers and we get really excited about car rides and walks, and maybe a few of us need a few New Year's resolutions because the only thing I gained in 2020 was weight. And so, you know, honest truth, I think we did gain something in 2020.

We have gained a thirst for God. And as we come into the new year, it is our custom here not to emphasize New Year's resolutions. Nothing wrong with goals. In fact, setting good goals with concrete objectives for reaching those goals is a good strategy for life. But New Year's resolutions don't work. Read a Washington Post article this week said only 8% of people actually accomplish their New Year's resolutions. Someone else has done a study that says 80% of New Year's resolutions have been abandoned by February.

So they don't really work. And instead, what we do is we come to the new year not by ramping up our promises to God, but by reveling in God's promises to us. Blessing is a positive vision that is spoken over your life and faith. I've been here over 24 years, and my first Sunday, I made a pledge that I want to bless you, never curse you. And we begin every year, therefore, by speaking a word of vision rooted in God's word, spoken in faith. And this year, I speak a blessing that I've been waiting to speak over you in a real sense as the New Year's blessing for over a decade I've been studying this.

And it became the subject of a book of mine that's coming out in February. And I think it is the substance and the model for all blessing. It is rooted in a mysterious story we're going to look at in Genesis chapter 48.

I have some years ago preached to this, maybe some of you've heard. But before I began studying, I never even really was familiar with the story that we talk about today and this blessing. It is arguably the most important family blessing in the Bible mandated that Hebrew fathers would speak it over their children. For 3,700 years, Jewish fathers, every Sabbath will say these words over their children. It's extraordinarily important blessing in God's mind.

And yet we've never seemed to have heard of it. And today I want to speak simply this New Year's blessing. May God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. Why in the world would God mandate that every single week Jewish fathers were to tell their children and bless them that God would make them like Ephraim and Manasseh?

Well, why not if you're going to pick somebody out and say, may God make you like, why not Abraham and Isaac or Moses and Joshua or Elijah and Elisha, some famous Bible heroes or people that we know that were extraordinary and gifts or extraordinary and blessedness in demonstrable ways. But Ephraim and Manasseh, until I started studying this some over 10 years ago, I didn't really knew who they were, much less what could be significant about this blessing. It's interesting that Jewish rabbis have over the centuries speculated as to why Ephraim and Manasseh. And the consensus report is kind of funny is that most rabbis said it's because Ephraim and Manasseh got along together and didn't have this kind of sibling rivalry that we see in most of the other siblings in the Bible.

Well, any parent knows if your children don't express sibling rivalry, that is a blessing. But I think that there's got to be something deeper than that as to why. And what I'm going to show you today is to me one of the most thrilling things the Holy Spirit ever showed me in the Bible. And it is my heart and my intent to revisit this blessing and give a little series on this later in the early spring. But today I want to give you this blessing and then there's one aspect of it that I want to just spend time on over the next five weeks. I'll explain further. But the blessing is found in Genesis 48 verse 20.

This is what's happened. Joseph, who had been assaulted and traumatized by his brother, sold into slavery, falsely accused and thrown into prison as exalted through his capacity to interpret dreams into Pharaoh's court and placed the second command of all of Egypt and eventually is used by God to save the known world from famine. Jacob, his father, who loved Joseph more than anything in life, had spent his whole last 30 years grieving, thinking that Joseph was dead.

And then they're reunited. And before Jacob dies, before Joseph's father dies, Joseph, learning that his father is nearing death, rushes to his bedside because he wants more than anything else. And this is not the only place you see this in the scripture. What he wanted more than anything else was for Jacob to bless Joseph's sons, for him to bless his grandsons. If nothing else, this should arouse our attention to the power and place of blessing because it's what we see in the narrative of the patriarchs, what seems to be not only the thread that is passing along the favor of God, but it is the thing that people most want from their fathers is blessing. It's not a story primarily about wanting riches or wanting an impartation of a particular craftsmanship or a particular skill. What boys and grandsons and granddaughters want is a blessing from their father and their father's father.

And that's what's going on here. When Joseph comes, asks Jacob to bless him and rousing his final energy, Jacob blesses these grandsons. We read about it at 4820 in Genesis, Genesis 4820. So he, that's Jacob, blessed them that day saying, by you, Israel will pronounce blessings saying, God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. And that's one of the most important verses in the Bible that nobody would ever pay attention to, but God put Ephraim before Manasseh.

And I'm going to explain that from that time forward for 3,700 years. This is what Jewish fathers have been saying over their children. And in this mysterious ancient blessing, I think you're going to see the secret to finding favor in God's eyes. And you're going to find the glory of what blessing is all about. The Bible is not about moralism. This is why we practice blessing. The Bible is not a story about how if you will in a moralistic way live a better life, then you will be more acceptable to God.

That is exactly what the Bible is not about. In fact, if you just picked up the Bible and just read it through, what would stand out to you is how shocking it is that God would pick a people and bless them for no particular reason. And that those people though blessed would often rebel against God. And yet the power of blessing is relentless. And what you would see is that in utter contrary fashion to the ways of culture, God does not motivate us by withholding His love, but by giving it. And in this world, what happens is that people who want you to do what they want you to do withhold love and acceptance in some measure like a carrot dangled before you. If you'll run faster and jump higher, then you'll be given love and acceptance and blessing. And so when we bless, we are defying a dark kingdom and we are living out the kingdom principle of God.

For this is the way of transformation. God bless Adam and Eve. And then he said, be fruitful and multiply.

It is a golden thread that runs all the way through the scripture. Not only did he bless this man, Abraham and say through you, all the nations will be blessed, but the Hebrew patriarchs bless their sons and their grandsons. And Moses blessed the tribes of Israel and David blessed his family. And even when Jesus was born, God appointed a man named Simeon to come and lay his hands on the baby Jesus and bless him. He was a sinless son of God and yet he needed blessing and at his baptism, his own father said, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased and blessed him. Jesus began his ministry by speaking a series of blessings, blessed are the poor in spirit. And when Jesus was teaching, people just wanted to bring their little children to him.

Why? So it blessed them. I tell you with almost a hundred percent certainty when those little children came up to Jesus and he put his hands on them, he would say many things to them, but he was certainly saying, may God make you like Eve and Manasseh. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Wouldn't it be nice to set your mind on God's blessing instead of the curses of the world? This month's special offer from Alan Wright Ministries will help. Coinciding with the release of Pastor Alan's new book, The Power to Bless, we have created a flip style devotional for your desk or kitchen counter. The beautiful spiral bound devotional offers 28 days of inspiration utilizing some of the most moving excerpts from the new book. Use it day by day for four weeks so you'll keep the promises and assurance of God's blessing right in front of you. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, whatever is true, noble, right and pure, think on these things. So make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today and we'll send you the inspirational flip style devotional as our thank you for your partnership.

Each spiral bound devotional comes with a convenient easel style stand so you can keep the day's inspiration in front of you and fill your heart with God's blessing. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. The last thing Jesus did when he left this earth was he lifted up his hands and he blessed the disciples. Paul said we're supposed to bless even our enemies. It is the, it is the way of God. And so when we bless, we are putting into effect God's plan for empowerment.

That's what we're doing. It's the way love is expressed. And part of the reason that we practice blessing here is that honestly, after 30 years of study and blessing, I believe more passionately now in the need for it than I did when I first started learning about it. Because if you were made to and designed for receiving blessing and giving blessing, but family delivers that blessing imperfectly or not at all, or instead gives curse, then part of your design is not being fulfilled.

Let me say it more starkly. You can never be who God made you to be without blessing. It's just the way God made us. And our families are too fractured. Family is supposed to be the place where blessing goes on from generation to generation to generation. And what's so sad is that we're in a culture now that is trying to say that family doesn't even matter. It's almost always like fathers don't matter in our culture.

It doesn't matter who you got in the home. And nothing could be further from the truth according to the word of God. That this blessing that comes through families is so important that without it, we'll never be who we're supposed to be. And so what I believe is that we are brothers and sisters in Christ and we are a family. And so what we do in this family is we bless. We bless and we do not curse. And I want to bless you.

I'm like everyone. There's ways in which I've craved blessing from my father that I didn't get. And some of it was he grew up in that, you know, came through that time where dads were not quite likely to tell their children how proud they were of him. And he'd always brag about us to everybody else. I think I'd nauseum people come and say, all your dad ever told us about is you three boys, you know, and yet we're sitting there like, tell us, you know, it feels like, and, uh, I find out still stuff about my dad.

My brother has gotten sort of interested in the ancestry stuff and looks up stuff. And he wrote me last week. He said, did you know that dad was the president of the student body at Lenora college when he was there? I said, no, I didn't know.

I didn't know he's a leader. Um, I'd like to have known it. And I liked him and said, uh, you know, I've been a leader and now you're a leader, Alan, and I want to bless that leadership in here to reach many people.

I'd like to have, I'd have had that. I, um, interesting and ironic twist the way God works out things. Um, my dad was a news man and now here I am. I'm a news man too. I'm a good, good news man. He spent every week like, do you ready for some news?

Are you ready for some good news? And, uh, he actually started, he was a TV man, but he actually started in radio and, uh, the, the, the sweet irony was not lost upon me when over 10 years ago we started a radio ministry. My dad was in dementia by that time in a skilled care facility. And often when I would go, if the weather was nice, I would just take him in his wheelchair outside just to get some fresh air, some sunshine. And I'll never forget, uh, the time that I went to visit him right after we started on radio. And, uh, he was a little bit more lucid that day. His head was down as it usually was seldom would he pick up his head and look at me. But on that day I just was talking and sometimes I just talk and I did all the talking and I just assumed his spirit was getting it, you know, but I just said to him, Dad, I said, uh, we started our radio ministry yesterday and we're on, we're on five stations in three States and he picked up his head and had a big grin and said, well, that's great.

I just took it in. But what I really wanted was a miracle, right? What I really wanted, I'm saying, what does a, what does a boy's soul crave from his daddy? What I really wanted was him to be able to rise up out of that wheelchair, walk behind me, put his hands on my shoulders and began speaking and prophesying blessing over my life.

I had to give it almost anything for that to say I was in radio son, but now you're in radio for a greater purpose. And I bless that ministry to reach thousands and thousands and whatever communication gift began in me, my son, I now bless it in you that God would use your voice and, but he couldn't not in body nor in spirit. And so I made it my resolve as a spiritual father of this flock, I'm here to bless you and we're a family and you can just count on that. In fact, the matter, be honest with you, brothers and sisters, I would not go to a church that does not practice blessing.

It is that integral to the nature of the gospel. We can't live without blessing. We need to bless each other in the hallways and in the parking lot and our coming and going and our rising and our going to bed at night blessing. God just implemented this and said, I want you Hebrew daddies, I want you to say this over your children every week. I want this to go into them. May God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh.

What is going on here? I think blessing is something like what Dallas Willard said. I like this definition, the projection of good into the life of another. It isn't just words. It's the actual putting forth of your will for the good of another person. I think we got to decide whether we believe that or not.

And, and, and I believe that every fiber of my being that God has made a way, you know, that feeling you have when you love somebody and you just want something good for them, you'd like to be able to just put it into them. Everybody in this room right now, you probably know somebody in this very position. They're believing a lie about their own life. They're believing a lie about their destiny. They're not walking into the destiny that you know, you're seeing virtue in them that they don't see in themselves. You're seeing potential that they don't see in themselves. And if you could somehow just take it, just give it to them.

And it's frustrating when you can't. And what God's given to us is blessing. So may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. Oh, it's such an intriguing blessing.

3700 years, Jewish father's been saying these words and yet hardly anybody's ever tried to come up with a reason why. And I've been studying this, and I just think that that there's something going on here that is profound and shows the model of all blessing. And I want to just give it to you today. These four gifts of this blessing that I think of the essence of all blessing.

And I guess it later I'm going to come back to this. Let me give this to you today. And the first thing that I noticed about this that I think is key is that when Joseph brought his sons for his father to bless Ephraim and Manasseh. So Jacob's going to just speak a blessing over these grandsons. Jacob does something that takes your breath away when you think about it.

He adopts them. Alan Wright. Today's good news message in our New Year's blessing. And Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing a parting good news thought for the day in just a moment.

Stick with us. Wouldn't it be nice to set your mind on God's blessing instead of the curses of the world? This month's special offer from Alan Wright Ministries will help you. Coinciding with the release of Pastor Alan's new book, The Power to Bless, we have created a flip style devotional for your desk or kitchen counter. The beautiful spiral bound devotional offers 28 days of inspiration utilizing some of the most moving excerpts from the new book. Use it day by day for four weeks so you'll keep the promises and assurance of God's blessing right in front of you. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, whatever is true, noble, right and pure, think on these things. So make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today and we'll send you the inspirational flip style devotional as our thank you for your partnership.

Each spiral bound devotional comes with a convenient easel style stand so you can keep the day's inspiration in front of you and fill your heart with God's blessing. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. We're back here with Pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day, which really is a central theme to your brand new book, The Power to Bless.

I'm holding it in my hands. And so what a great teaching going from the pulpit teaching now into the book format of not only understanding the power of blessing, but then taking that and applying it, the power to bless. This blessing that Jewish fathers have been speaking over their children for 3700 years, every Sabbath day saying, may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. And nobody seems to know why.

Even the Jewish rabbis never could come to an agreement or a consensus as to why. And it finally makes sense when you really see the gospel, when you see what God's done for us in Jesus Christ. Daniel, this is the very heart of our new book that has just been released. It is a lens, the Ephraim and Manasseh blessing, a lens through which you could see the essentials of blessing and anyone, anyone, it's never too late to receive blessing and to start your life in a whole new direction. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.