Linnea's Study on Psalm 78 Ephraim
XXX. EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH - Out of the Dual Plan
In the movement when the twelve tribes return to the throne of David, Ephraim is pointed out as the one who will take the lead. When the ten tribes under Jeroboam, the Ephraimite, revolted and separated from that throne, he was the leader. The blessings pronounced over Joseph, the father, were transferred to Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim, although the youngest, was favored with the blessing of the first-born—that of receiving a double portion of the inheritance.
Jacob, the patriarch, adopted the two sons of Joseph as his own children. The history of the proceeding is as follows:
"And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me. And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. 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. And thy Issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren In their inheritance. And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there In the way of Ephrath; the same is Beth-lehem.. And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these? And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me In this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him: and he kissed them, and embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God had shewed me also thy seed. And Joseph brought them out from between 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 unto him. And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the first-born. And he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day. The angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude In the midst of the earth. And when Joheph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh; and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die; but God shall be with you and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the land of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow." (Gen. 48: 3-22.)
The special blessings which Jacob allotted to Joseph were as follows:
"Joseph Is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob: (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee: and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren." (Gen. 49: 22-26.)
Moses also prophesied about the future conditions of the twelve tribes; his prophecy concerning Joseph is as follows:
"And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath. And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, And for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns; with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh." (Deut. 33: 13-17.)
The blessings prophetically announced refer directly to the inheritance promised Abraham and his descendants in connection with the covenant between God and Abraham. One of those promises was that the descendants of Abraham should finally possess the gate of their enemies. That gate is the gate to the great "Babilu," the kingdom of Ham's descendants. When Abraham entered the covenant, he went out from the gate of Babilu, Baal's kingdom. When his descendants possess the gate of their enemies, they will have taken the kingdom from them.
If we now place the blessings pronounced over Joseph in categorical order, they stand as follows:
1. The branches (Hebrew, daughters) of Joseph run over the wall—the wall of the enemy's kingdom. In the movement to take the kingdom, the daughters among the descendants of Joseph take part in the foremost lines; they take part in the leading movement.
2. Because Joseph—and this includes his descendants—has been hated and separated from his brethren and has been made an object of misuse and persecution, the mighty God of Jacob will finally strengthen his arms and make his bow mighty that he may conquer his enemies.
3. "The shepherd, the stone of Israel" shall come from Joseph. (Gen. 49: 22-24.) This refers directly to the train that returns to the throne of David, not to Christ personally because Christ was of the tribe of Judah. If we compare the following testimonies with others that point to Ephraim's leadership in the coming movement, the meaning can be fully understood:
"Now the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's" (1 Chro. 5: 1, 2.)
"Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim. But chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved." (Ps. 78: 67, 68.) CLICKING ON THE VERSE WILL OPEN NEW WINDOW
These testimonies say that although the birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, especially to Ephraim, still the chief ruler (the Messiah) did not come from them, but from Judah. By right, according to the signification of the birthright, he should have come from the tribe that was destined to inherit the advantages of the birthright: namely, Ephraim. But for some reason—undoubtedly because he led the ten tribes away from the throne of David, upon which the promises rest—Ephraim lost that favor and honor. But in leading the tribes back to that throne, Ephraim will enter into his birthright and will be the first one to embrace the true Messiah as the king of the new government.
4. The glory of Joseph is "like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns (war-powers) are like the horns of unicorns (long and pointed) ; with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh."
The glory of the first-born rests on Ephraim and Manasseh and is displayed in their united work of pushing the tribes together in the final movement to the everlasting kingdom. Thus we see that the prophetic declarations of both Jacob and Moses signify that Ephraim and Manasseh are appointed to lead the returning train. If we then turn to the direct prophecies concerning the gathering of the dispersed tribes and their return to the Messianic government, we will find that Ephraim is accepted by God as the first-born. Jeremiah, describing the returning train, quotes the words of the Lord thus:
"They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters In a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn." (Jer. 31: 9.)
Micah speaks of the same train and says:
"I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold; they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The Breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them." (Mic. 2: 12, 13.)
The "Breaker" means, of course, the one who leads the train and pushes the tribes together in the great movement. If we then add Zech. 10: 6-8 to the above testimony, it becomes clear that the "Breaker" has reference to Ephraim, the leader of the great train.
"And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off; for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord. I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased."
Now to the questions: Who is Ephraim and where is he? Those who have given any time to a special observation of the prophecies have noticed that Ephraim is distinctly marked as the favored child and that a great blessing is in store for him at the time the tribes return to the God of their fathers. Hence, we find that various peoples have been set forth as the seed of Ephraim. Several writers among the English and American peoples have applied the name Ephraim to the Anglo-Saxon race, and in order to present that race so as to correspond with the two sons of Joseph: namely, Ephraim and Manasseh, they apply the name Ephraim to the English and the name Manasseh to the Americans. But how they can get an Englishman, even if he were a descendant of Ephraim, to belong to the tribe of Manasseh because he moves to America, settles there and raises a family, is more than we can comprehend. Ephraim is Ephraim wherever he may be found and so is Manasseh. Even if Ephraim should dwell in the land of Manasseh, he is still Ephraim.
The two brothers were prophetically bound together by Jacob when he placed his hands crosswise on their heads. The signification was that they should be united under one and the same head, and that Ephraim should be the head or the leader. As Ephraim particularly represents Joseph, his history must also correspond with that of Joseph's in his abused and humiliated condition.
We are of the opinion that a portion of the Swedish nation constitutes the remnant of the descendants of Ephraim and that a portion of the Norwegian nation constitutes the remnant of the descendants of Manasseh. As two brothers under one head, they fill the prophetic descriptions signified by the hands of father Jacob. In the light of history, they as a people cannot be traced as originating from one and the same tribe; yet, their similarity in appearance and language may convince anyone that they were brothers originally.
The history of Sweden is very remarkable, and in many points, it corresponds with that of Joseph's. Here we shall cite a few of the many points that may be brought forth as proofs. We may first say that the characteristic traits of the Swedes are generally known to be their intelligence and their devotion—the very qualities by which Joseph distinguished himself as differing from his brethren. The history of the Swedes also bears pronounced traces of severe and unrighteous attacks from the surrounding nations, which have tried time and again, both by fraudulency and by assault, to overpower and crush them. But when they have been pressed hard to the wall, they have astonished the world more than once by their courage and conquering-power. They have trusted in the hand of the Almighty and have ascribed their victories to him.