“And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, [are] mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.” (Ge 48:5 AV)
Reuben and Simeon fell out of grace with their father. Reuben slept with Jacob’s concubine, and Simeon slaughtered the men of Shechem without his father’s permission. Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn and would normally take the place as the head of the family. Because of his sin, he lost that to Joseph. Now, Joseph’s son Ephraim would assume that role. Jacob’s words are intended to replace Reuben and Simeon with Ephraim and Manasseh. Reuben and Simeon were not replaced as tribes in Israel. The twelve tribes that inherited land did not include Levi. When Jacob states that Ephraim and Manasseh would be as Reuben and Simeon, he was not disinheriting the latter two. Rather, in function, Ephraim and Manasseh would replace Simeon and Reuben. Ephraim, who replaces Reuben, would be that tribe from which the majority of judges were taken. Reuben lost the privilege as the firstborn because of his sin, and another took his place.
Something to consider here is that Judah was blessed by his father, Jacob, as the lawgiver. It would be through Judah that David and his descendants would rule. It is through Judah that Jesus Christ was born. So, the judgment on Reuben and Ephraim’s consequence rise was the doing of Jacob. God may have honored it in the short term, but the transference of leadership from Reuben to Ephraim was temporary at best. In fact, in doing so, Jacob occasioned the underpinnings of civil unrest within the nation for hundreds of generations. There was never complete unity between Ephraim and Judah. The ten northern tribes and the two southern tribes were never completely on the same page. We see this from the book of judges until the carrying away of Israel to Assyria and Babylon. Jacob’s reaction to his eldest son’s sin inadvertently led to the separation of the north from the south. We have to be careful in assuming that Jacob’s actions regarding the history of Israel were the perfect and trouble-free will of a sovereign God. God may have used the decisions of Jacob, but using his actions and endorsing them as purely holy are two separate things.
People hold grudges. And those grudges can result in equally poor decisions. Jacob may have chosen Ephraim and Manasseh as replacements for Reuben and Simeon, but that doesn’t mean God approved of it. Simeon and Levi avenged their sister Dinah. The prince of Shechem laid with Dinah without marrying her. They were offended and killed all the adult males among them. As they should have. But Jacob was too scared of the repercussions upon his family and rebuked his two sons. They did the right thing, and Jacob never forgot it. Holding a grudge against his two sons who showed initiative in defending his daughter, should have been lauded and not resented. What we learn from Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh is that people do not forget. God may forgive, but people may not. Unfortunately, this also means consequences from poor decisions may not be God’s judgement upon them, but man’s opinion of them. Yes, Reuben should have been replaced as the leader. He could not control his flesh. So, why would he be allowed to control a nation? Simeon, on the other hand, was a man of passion and justice. There was no cause for his loss of importance.
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