- 153-
they seek a country,.... a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city."(Hebrews
11:13, 14, 16)
And in such wise also must each of our lives, whatever its outward history, be to us
only a "pilgrimage."
But seventeen more years were granted to Israel in his quiet retirement of Goshen.
Feeling that now the time of his departure had really come, he sent for Joseph. It was
not to express weak regrets, nor even primarily to take such loving farewell as, under
such circumstances, might be proper and fitting. Israel, as he is here again
characteristically named,^78 was preparing for another great act of faith. On his dying
bed, he still held fast by the promises of God concerning the possession of Canaan,
and all that was connected with it; and he exacted an oath from his son to bury him
with his fathers, in the cave of Machpelah. Having obtained this solemn promise, it is
said,^79 "he bowed himself in worship over the head of the bed."
One thing still remained to be done. As yet the sons of Joseph had not been formally
adopted into the family of Israel. But the two oldest of them, Manasseh and Ephraim,
were to become heads of separate tribes; for Joseph was to have this right of the
firstborn - two portions in Israel. Therefore, when, shortly after his interview with his
father, Joseph was informed that the last fatal sickness had come upon him, he
hastened to bring his two sons that they might be installed as co-heirs with the other
sons of Jacob. In this Joseph signally showed his faith. Instead of seeking for his sons
the honors which the court of Egypt offered them, he distinctly renounced all, to
share the lot of the despised shepherd race. For the first time we here find the blessing
accompanied with the laying on of hands.^80
But Jacob's eyes were dim, and when Joseph had brought his two sons close to his
father, placing Manasseh, as the eldest, to his father's right hand, and Ephraim, as the
younger, to his left, he ascribed it to failure of sight when Israel crossed his hands,
laying the right on Ephraim and the left on Manasseh. But Jacob had been "guiding
his hands wittingly." In fact, he had done it prophetically. The event proved the truth
of this prophecy. At the time of Moses, indeed, Manasseh still counted twenty
thousand men more than Ephraim.(Numbers 26:34, 37) But this comparative
relationship was reversed in the days of the Judges; and ever afterwards Ephraim
continued, next to Judah, the most powerful tribe in Israel. What, however, chiefly
impresses us is, to see how intensely all the feelings, remembrances, and views of the
dying man are intertwined with his religion. No longer does he cherish any hard
thoughts about his "evil" days in the past. His memory of former days is now only of
the gentleness and the goodness of God, Who had led him all through his pilgrimage.
His feelings come out most fully in the words of blessing which he spake: "The
(^)