When St. Paul wished to select from the history of Jacob an instance of faith, he took the scene described in the text, when Joseph brings his two sons to the deathbed of his father. The text is therefore to be considered as one in which faith was signally exhibited.
I. Jacob seems to make it his object, and to represent it as a privilege, that he should take the lads out of the family of Joseph, though that family was then one of the noblest in Egypt, and transplant them into his own, though it had no outward distinction but what it derived from its connection with the other. Faith gave him this consciousness of superiority; he knew that his posterity were to constitute a peculiar people, from which would at length arise the Redeemer. He felt it far more of an advantage for Ephraim and Manasseh to be counted with the tribes than numbered among the princes of Egypt.
II. Observe the peculiarity of Jacob's language with regard to his preserver, and his decided preference of the younger brother to the elder, in spite of the remonstrances of Joseph. There was faith, and illustrious faith, in both. By the "Angel who redeemed him from all evil," he must have meant the Second Person of the Trinity; he shows that he had glimmerings of the finished work of Christ. The preference of the younger son to the elder was typical of the preference of the Gentile Church to the Jewish. Acting on what he felt convinced was the purpose of God, Jacob did violence to his own inclination and that of those whom he most longed to please.
III. Jacob's worshipping (referred to in Hebrews xi.) may be taken as proving his faith. What has a dying man to do with worshipping, unless he is a believer in another state? He leans upon the top of his staff as if he would acknowledge the goodness of his heavenly Father, remind himself of the troubles through which he had been brought and of the Hand which alone had been his guardian and guide.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2261.
References: Genesis 48:15; Genesis 48:16. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xi., p. 274.Genesis 48:16. J. Wells, Bible Children,p. 69; J. Burns, Sketches of Sermons on Special Occasions,p. 131; A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 186; J. Thain Davidson, Talks with Young Men,p. 133.Genesis 48:21. J. P. Gledstone, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xx., p. 152; J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation,vol. ii., p. 379; S. A. Brooke, Sermons,2nd series, p. 265; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxvii., No. 1630. Genesis 48:22. W. M. Taylor, Joseph the Prime Minister,p. 153.Genesis 49 F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis,p. 175.Genesis 49:1. F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes,Philippians 1:13.Genesis 49:1; Genesis 49:2. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 554.Genesis 49:1-12. R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis,vol. ii., p. 275.Genesis 49:1-27. W. M. Taylor, Joseph the Prime Minister,p. 171.Genesis 49:3; Genesis 49:4. F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes,p. 53; J. C. M. Bellew, Five Occasional Sermons,p. 19. Genesis 49:8-12. J. Monro Gibson, The Ages before Moses,p. 219.