The book of Genesis has really been jumping out at me lately.

I had one of those, “Wait! What?!?” lightbulb moments the other day.

I was coming to the end of the book when Jacob is blessing his grandson’s Ephraim and Manasseh. As you continue to read about the twelve tribes of Israel these two are part of those twelve.

I’ve had a hard understanding of why Israel was chosen as God’s people and why all the rest of us are labeled as “The Gentiles”. It’s always had such a negative connotation to me. 

Logically I know that being an Israelite and being a Gentile are no longer different under Jesus. But, I won’t lie that it irks me just a bit that Israelites get that title of God’s chosen people.

But, I think God knew I had this unnecessary jealousy and that is why he let this passage jump out at me. 

In Genesis Chapter 48 we find Jacob, father of Joseph, on his deathbed. In his final season of life he wants to bestow a blessing on his favorite son Joseph who he never thought he’d see again. 

If you remember, Joseph was sold by his brothers into to slavery and ended up in Egypt. But God had a plan for Joseph and he was eventually restored and blessed by God and able to save his whole family from famine, ensuring the bloodline of Abraham lived on.

Joseph and his brothers would come to be the twelve tribes of Israel-God’s chosen people.

But at the end of Jacob’s story (who is the father of all twelve sons who would become the twelve tribes) he specifically reaches out to Joseph’s first two sons.

“Jacob said to Joseph, ‘God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’ Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.” Genesis 48:3-5 (emphasis mine)

That last sentence, “your two sons born to you in Egypt will be mine” was my lightbulb moment.

You see, Joseph married an Egyptian woman, therefore his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh were half Egyptian. Jacob, their grandfather, claimed them as his own, meaning he adopted them as his sons.

Perhaps this lightbulb is way brighter for me than you, but it hit me so hard after I read this that the twelve tribes of Israel included two sons who were not fully Hebrew. They were half Egyptian. Meaning God’s chosen people are exactly that-who he chooses. Yes the Israelites were called Hebrews, but it encompassed so much more than a race or ethnicity.

And after reading this passage in this way, it immediately clicked that we “Gentiles” have been adopted by God through Jesus. We are His chosen people too.

The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4-5 that, “ …He [God] chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” (emphasis mine)

WOW!

Seriously, I am just so amazed at how God points these things out when I least expect it. 

The Old Testament is full of these comparisons of God and Israel as the New Testament with Jesus and us. It’s truly such a wonder when God helps you to see it for yourself. 

My jealousy for the title of being an Israelite is truly trivial, I think perhaps it stems from always wanting to be the teacher’s pet, or getting special titles. But I know that God loves all his children. 

I think perhaps, we all need a gentle reminder that we serve a big God and he is always there for us fully and wholly. 

Have you ever had a lightbulb moment when re-reading the Bible? I’d love to hear all about it!