One Year Pray for the Persecuted Bible - Flipbook - Page 94
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January 24
JESUS CALLED OUT THE PHARISEES not just for their hypocrisy but
also for their deceptive teaching. These false teachers wrapped their
lessons in the trappings of Scripture, but the result of following their
teaching led to empty religion rather than a relationship with the
living God. • LORD, FALSE TEACHERS still claim to speak on your
behalf. Protect the young believers in restricted nations and hostile
areas from being deceived. Guard their hearts and minds. Keep their
focus on you and your truth alone. Amen.
GENESIS 48:1–49:33
One day not long after this, word came to Jo
seph, “Your father is failing rapidly.” So Joseph
went to visit his father, and he took with him
his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
2 When Joseph arrived, Jacob was told, “Your
son Joseph has come to see you.” So Jacob*
gathered his strength and sat up in his bed.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty* appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and
blessed me. 4 He said to me, ‘I will make you
fruitful, and I will multiply your descendants.
I will make you a multitude of nations. And I
will give this land of Canaan to your descendants* after you as an everlasting possession.’
5 “Now I am claiming as my own sons these
two boys of yours, Ephraim and Manasseh,
who were born here in the land of Egypt before I arrived. They will be my sons, just as
Reuben and Simeon are. 6 But any children
born to you in the future will be your own, and
they will inherit land within the territories of
their brothers Ephraim and Manasseh.
7 “Long ago, as I was returning from Paddanaram,* Rachel died in the land of Canaan. We
were still on the way, some distance from
Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). So with great
sorrow I buried her there beside the road to
Ephrath.”
8 Then Jacob looked over at the two boys.
“Are these your sons?” he asked.
9 “Yes,” Joseph told him, “these are the sons
God has given me here in Egypt.”
And Jacob said, “Bring them closer to me, so
I can bless them.”
10 Jacob was half blind because of his age
and could hardly see. So Joseph brought the
boys close to him, and Jacob kissed and embraced them. 11 Then Jacob said to Joseph, “I
never thought I would see your face again, but
now God has let me see your children, too!”
12 Joseph moved the boys, who were at their
grandfather’s knees, and he bowed with his
face to the ground. 13 Then he positioned the
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boys in front of Jacob. With his right hand he
directed Ephraim toward Jacob’s left hand,
and with his left hand he put Manasseh at Jacob’s right hand. 14 But Jacob crossed his arms
as he reached out to lay his hands on the boys’
heads. He put his right hand on the head of
Ephraim, though he was the younger boy, and
his left hand on the head of Manasseh, though
he was the firstborn. 15 Then he blessed Joseph
and said,
16
“May the God before whom my
grandfather Abraham
and my father, Isaac, w
alked—
the God who has been my shepherd
all my life, to this very day,
the Angel who has redeemed me from
all harm—
may he bless these boys.
May they preserve my name
and the names of Abraham and Isaac.
And may their descendants multiply
greatly
throughout the earth.”
17 But
Joseph was upset when he saw that
his father placed his right hand on Ephra
im’s head. So Joseph lifted it to move it from
Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 “No, my
father,” he said. “This one is the firstborn. Put
your right hand on his head.”
19 But his father refused. “I know, my son;
I know,” he replied. “Manasseh will also become a great people, but his younger brother
will become even greater. And his descendants will become a multitude of nations.”
20 So Jacob blessed the boys that day with
this blessing: “The people of Israel will use
your names when they give a blessing. They
will say, ‘May God make you as prosperous as
Ephraim and Manasseh.’” In this way, Jacob
put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.
21 Then Jacob said to Jo
seph, “Look, I am
about to die, but God will be with you and
will take you back to Canaan, the land of your
