An Historical Perspective for the Book of Mormon ~More of Jacob's Blessings

Last week, I wrote about an historical setting for the Book of Mormon.  I spoke a lot about Jacob, also known as Israel, and the blessings he gave to his twelve sons.  I gave particular emphasis to two of those sons: Judah and Joseph, with a mention to the blessing of Levi.  I spoke of Moses and Aaron who were descendants of Levi and holders of the Levitical or Aaronic priesthood.  I talked about David and Solomon, Kings of Israel and descendants to Judah, and about Jesus Christ, descendant of David, Shiloh or the Prince of Peace.

Thus far, although I gave Joseph's blessing in some detail, I haven't spoken about his descendants or their link to the Book of Mormon.  I am about to do so now.

Joseph had two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim.  Jacob blessed both of them and claimed them as if they were his sons (see Genesis 48:5.)  Ultimately, they became two of the twelve tribes of Israel.  They took the place of their father, Joseph, and the place of their Uncle, Levi, who was scattered among Israel and had no land inheritance as a tribe.  One never reads about the Tribe of Joseph or the Tribe of Levi in the Old or New Testament, but one does read about the Tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.

When Jacob gave his grandsons' their patriarchal blessings, he did something very strange.  Manasseh, as the elder of the two, should have received the birthright blessing and have been under his right hand, but when Joseph presented his sons, Jacob crossed his hands.  Joseph tried to correct what he thought was a simple error on the part of his aging parent, but Jacob returned his right hand to Ephraim and gave him the birthright blessing as he had given it to Joseph.

Many hundreds of years later, a descendant of Manasseh was called to be a prophet to the Kingdom of Judah.  His name was Lehi, a name which means jawbone.  On Friday, I will write about him as he is the patriarch of the Book of Mormon people.  Trust me; I will tie in all these loose ends before this series of blogs is completed and I'll try to build in some reviews along the way.

Text copyright June 2013 Gebara Education

 

Picture of Jacob blessing his sons from www.lds.org

Picture of Jacob blessing Ephraim and Manasseh from www.keyway.ca

Picture of Lehi from www.lds.org