West, Benjamin (1738-1820), Detail from Jacob Blessing Ephraim and Manasseh, Oberlin College, OH, 1766-68.
This article is Part 9 of the FAI Publishing series Seeds and Generations, a Biblical survey of the theology of “Seed” and “Generation” throughout redemptive history to the end of the age.
A Seed IN EXILE
While Yehuda was struggling to produce an heir in the Land, his younger brother Yosef was in exile as a slave in Egypt for thirteen years. Stripped of his coat of birthright, “rejected by elder” brothers,[1] and “delivered over to the gentiles,”[2] Yosef became as one “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”[3] The firstborn son of Rachel served in the house of the Egyptian official Potiphar for a season before false accusations sent him into the pit of prison.[4] And yet, “the Lord was with Yosef and showed him steadfast love…And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.” In this way, Yosef not only prefigured a Promised Seed who would be rejected by the sons of Israel and suffer unjustly at the hands of the gentiles, but also One of whom it would be said “He does all things well.”[5]
Yosef’s suffering was finally rewarded when he was “exalted to the right hand” of the king after interpreting his dream.[6] He governed the kingdom for seven years of plenty before the foretold famine came, driving his elder brothers from the Land down into Egypt looking for food.
“And Yosef’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground…And Yosef recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.”[7]
So long had their half-brother lived among the gentiles that the other sons of Yakov didn’t recognize him. When Yosef demanded that they return to Canaan to retrieve Benyamin, the younger son of Rachel, they did so against their father’s wishes and returned to Egypt. On the second visit, Yosef revealed himself to the sons of Israel in a tearful reunion, full of forgiveness and reconciliation, once again prefiguring the future Seed who will someday visit Israel a second time and,
“…pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”[8]
After this, Yosef brought his father Yakov, his brothers, and their families into the exile of Egypt with him. And so Yosef’s suffering, which his brothers “meant for evil,”[9] was instead the very means by which God would “preserve for [them] a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for [them] many survivors.”[10]
In all of these things, Yosef is a type of the Promised Seed who would one day be born through the line of his brother Yehuda. The ancient Jewish sages gleaned the Messianic character of Yosef’s life as one who would suffer for the salvation of his people. The Talmud and other midrashic sources list several eschatological saviors, including a figure named Moshiach ben Yosef, or Messiah son of Joseph, who will purportedly die on behalf of Israel while leading an end-times battle against Gog of Magog. His death is followed by the kingdom of Moshiach ben David, or Messiah son of David, the descendent of Judah.[11]
It was clear to the rabbis from the Hebrew Scriptures that the Promised Seed would both suffer and die for the people as Yosef’s life foreshadowed, but that He would also rule and reign over them as a greater David.[12] How could both be true? They answered this question by suggesting two messianic figures. But the life of Yosef instead demonstrates one messiah in two visits; once to suffer, once to rule.
A SEED FOR THE NATIONS
As the family of Israel settled into the land of Egypt, the man Israel drew near to the end of his days. Yosef was told that his father was ill, and so according to custom, he brought his two eldest sons before their grandfather to inherit the blessing. But Yakov the Heel-Catcher had one more surprise up his sleeve before laying down to sleep with his fathers.
“When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, ‘Who are these?’ Joseph said to his father, ‘They are my sons, whom God has given me here [in Egypt].’ And he said, ‘Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.’ Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, ‘I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also.’ Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him. And 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). And he blessed Joseph and said,
The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,
the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys;
and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.’
When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said to his father, ‘Not this way, my father; since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.’ 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’…so he put Ephraim before Manasseh.’’[13]
As the younger Yitzak received the promise of the Woman’s Seed over his brother Ishmael, and as the younger Yakov had received the blessing and birthright over his brother Essau, so the younger Ephraim received the right hand of the patriarch and was “put before” his older brother Manasseh with a greater blessing. Manasseh would become a “great people,” a great tribe of Israel in the Land of Promise. But Ephraim would become “greater than he, and his offspring (or seed) shall become a multitude of nations,” language which hearkens back to the divine promise of his great-grandfather Abraham, whose name means “father of many nations,” and whose Seed would become a blessing to all nations.[14] But as we established in the last installment of this series, the Promised Seed would come through the line of Yehuda, and ultimately David, not Yosef. So how could the seed of Ephraim fulfill the promise of Abraham’s offspring among many nations? In his zeal to continue the tradition of greater blessing and birthright to the younger son, was Yakov in the wrong?
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews, under the Spirit’s inspiration, certainly did not believe that Yakov committed an error. “By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.”[15] Yakov crossed his arms to bless the sons of Yosef in faith, not knowing for certain how the line of the Promised Seed would continue, but discerning through the messiah-type life of his son Yosef something significant regarding the Seed who would count His offspring from among every tribe and tongue. The later genealogy of 1 Chronicles carries a clue:
“And again [Ephraim] lay with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. So he named him Beriah…Additionally, Rephah was his son, Resheph his son, Telah his son, Tahan his son, Ladan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, Nun his son, and Joshua (Hebrew Yehoshua) his son.”[16]
As the father of Ephraim had entered Egypt as a young man, so too would a descendent of Ephraim leave Egypt as a young man, wandering with the sons of Israel in the desert before leading them victoriously into the Land of Promise, to their inheritance, and to rest. His name was Hoshea, from the Hebrew word meaning “save.” Moses named him Yehoshua. One day, fifteen-hundred years later, the Angel Gabriel would announce to a young Jewish virgin named Miriam that she would,
“conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua (i.e. Yehoshua). He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”[17]
In his proclamation, the angel connects the seed of Ephraim, or Yehoshua (Yeshua), to the seed of Yehuda, or David. During and after the Exodus, the tribes of Ephraim and Yehuda were the largest and most powerful among the twelve. The Hebrew prophets often referred to these two tribes as inclusive of all twelve tribes in the north (Ephraim) and the south (Yehuda) of the Land.[18] This means that Gabriel’s “good news of great joy”[19] is not just for the people and land of David. It’s good news for the entire family of Israel. The Apostle John culminates this hope for the day that “all Israel will be saved”[20] in his vision of the Apocalypse, when 12,000 from the remnant of each of the twelve tribes are sealed before the great outpourings of both salvation and judgment on the Earth. These same 144,000 will later stand on Mount Zion alongside the Victorious Lamb of God, redeemed from the world, having kept themselves unstained and blameless, singing a song that none else could learn.[21]
Therefore, when blessing Ephraim as the one whose seed would become many nations, Yakov was not prophesying the physical lineage of the Promised Seed. He was prophesying the identity of the Promised Seed. The One who would come in the fulness of time and be lifted up to draw all nations to Himself would be Hoshea, Yehoshua, Yeshua, the One who saves, the One who leads His people into the Land of Promise, and into eternal rest.[22] Yehuda’s offspring would carry the line of the Promised Seed. But Ephraim’s offspring would reveal the Name of the Promised Seed, and therein, His purpose and character. Each of the two great tribes bore a key to the birth, life, suffering, death, and glory of the Woman’s Seed, who would suffer like Yosef, but then sit on David’s throne.
He is the One to whom the people of Jerusalem lay down palm branches of royalty crying the root word of His Name “Hosanna (i.e. Hoshea)! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”[23] And He is the one who told Jerusalem “You will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.”[24] As they cried out once, “Save!” so they will cry out again to the One whose Name means “save.” So will the sons of Israel in a final famine and exile bow before the Greater Yosef, that he might embrace them with tears.
Gabe Caligiuri is the editor of THE WIRE, as well as an occasional contributor to other FAI digital content on the subjects of history and geopolitics as they relate to the Great Commission. Gabe and his family live in California.
[1] Mark 8:31
[2] Luke 18:32
[3] Isaiah 53:3
[4] Joseph was taken to Egypt as a slave at the age of 17 (Gen 37:2) and entered the service of Pharoah at age 30 (Gen 41:46). It’s unknown for sure how long he spent in Potiphar’s house before being condemned to prison. The intertestamental Book of Jasher (44:76) suggests that he was imprisoned for 12 years, but this seems unlikely. He was in prison for at least two years after interpreting the dreams of Pharoah’s servants (Gen 41:1), and probably at least three years, allowing for the time it took to gain the prison master’s favor and become its manager (Gen 39:22-23). If he was indeed in prison for three years, this is another way in which his life’s narrative foreshadowed the One who would spend “three days and nights in the heart of the Earth” (Matt 12:40) after being wrongfully accused of a crime He did not commit.
[5] Genesis 39:21a, 23b
[6] Mark 7:37
[7] Acts 2:33
[8] Zechariah 12:12
[9] Genesis 50:20
[10] Genesis 45:7
[11] Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 52a and 52b reference Messiah son of Joseph, while the Jerusalem Targum refers to the same figure as Messiah son of Ephraim, who was the greater son of Joseph. Various rabbinic commentaries and commentators draw on this tradition, including Sefer Zerubbabel, Otot ha-Masiah, Nistarot Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai, Rashi, and Kol HaTor.
[12] The commonly accepted rabbinic identification of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53, at least since the time of Rashi in the tenth century, has been that of the corporate nation of Israel, not an individual man within Israel. However, many early rabbis between 150-950 CE considered Isaiah 53 to refer to Messiah, including the commentators of Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 98b, and the authors of Targum of Johnathan on Isaiah, Tanchuma Toldot, Peshikta, and Midrash Ruth Rabbah.
[13] Genesis 48:8-20
[14] Genesis 12:3
[15] Hebrews 11:21
[16] 1 Chronicles 7:23-27
[17] Luke 1:31-33
[18] Isaiah 7:17, 9:21, 11:13, Hosea 5:5, 5:12-14, 6:4, 10:11, 11:12, Ezekiel 36:16-19, Zechariah 9:13, 10:6.
[19] Luke 2:10
[20] Romans 11:26
[21] Revelation 7:1-8, 14:1-5. Note that the list in 7:5-8 uncharacteristically combines Ephraim and Manasseh into a single tribe of Joseph, which does not occur in the Hebrew Bible. Obviously, this allows the tribe of Dan to be included while maintaining the total number at twelve. But could it also be a nod to the man who was the progenitor of Yehoshua (Joshua), and the one whose suffering prefigured the suffering of John’s “Lamb who was slain”? (Rev 5:12)
[22] Hebrews 4:10
[23] John 12:12-13
[24] Matthew 23:39