Tricky Story Tuesday: Jacob Blesses Joseph's Sons

Today's challenge: finding a craft that helps 4, 5 and 6 year olds understand Jacob blessing Joseph's sons. Yes, I'm serious!

I've been expanding our children's church curriculum this year (we use a Children and Worship format for those familiar), writing new stories to fill in areas of the biblical framework that I thought were missing. Three of the new stories are about Joseph and I just decide last week to also include the story of Jacob blessing Joseph's sons in Genesis 48. I've been talking myself out of and then back into this decision every since.

Often when I tell people about stories I'm incorporating in our children's church I get confused looks or questions--"Why would you include that?" Some might find this discouraging, but I actually find that it's a real life reminder for me of why I'm actually including these stories--they play an important role in the overall biblical framework. Leaving them out leaves a gap in God's redemptive story.

For example, most teachers don't want to tackle the story of Rachel and Leah with young kids, but without this story we miss the amazing way God showed Leah love through her children. Leah was unloved by her husband, but God loved her so much he made her the mother of a kingly line and a priestly line. David and Jesus were descended from Leah's son, Judah and the priests were descended from Leah's son, Levi. What a beautiful visual for our children of God's love--particularly for those children who may feel unloved at times.

So it's for similar reasons that I've included this story of Jacob blessing Ephraim and Manasseh. It doesn't have the same warm, happy feelings we get when we see how Jesus, Savior of the World, is a descendant of an unloved wife. But we do get important information that we need to understand later texts of the Bible.

When the Bible refers to the twelve tribes, it's referring to Jacob's twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, Benjamin. But often, when the Bible talks about the tribes of Israel, Manasseh and Ephraim--Joseph's sons--replace Joseph. In those cases, the tribe of Levi is also excluded (usually because as the priestly tribe they don't go to war or receive an inheritance) so we're still left with a list of twelve tribes. But the list becomes: Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin.

For example, when 12 spies are sent into Canaan, those 12 individuals are one each from the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, Joseph/Manasseh, Dan, Asher, Naphtali and Gad (Numbers 13:4-16). The Levites are omitted and Joseph is represented by Manasseh and Ephraim, but specifically connected to Manasseh in the text. Confusing? A little bit... We see this repeatedly when the tribes are listed for counting, particularly in going to war. Joseph's tribe is essentially counted as two tribes, as both of his sons are listed. Yet, when you count the total tribes listed, there are still 12 tribes, because the Levites are counted separately.

Right about now, I'm sure you're all wondering how I explain this messy difference to 4, 5 and 6-year-olds. And to be honest, I don't. Maybe I should--kids are capable of understanding way more than we give them credit for. But my point in including the story of Jacob blessing Ephraim and Manasseh isn't to help kids fully grasp the different lists of twelve tribes. My goal is simply to make them familiar with the names of Joseph's sons and to understand what Jacob was doing by blessing them. I want them to see how Jacob gave Joseph a double portion of his inheritance through his two sons. So that later on, when they see these two names listed in the tribes of Israel, they will at least be familiar with them. Perhaps they'll even be able to connect them to Joseph and understand a little that Ephraim and Manasseh are listed separately because Jacob claimed Joseph's sons as his own when he blessed them.

And so I'm back to my initial problem of an activity for this tricky story--that sets up so much, but seems so strange. In the end I suppose I'll emphasize the characters and the blessing Jacob gives and push leaders to emphasize the names of the sons so that the children will recognize them later. I'll lay the groundwork for tricky conversations later on, knowing that these kids are fully capable of grasping these tricky concepts if we just stop underestimating them.

Moralism versus God's Glory in the Story of Joseph

A few weeks ago, we did a new story in our Children's Church, learning about Jacob's favoritism of Joseph and then Joseph's brothers' actions that resulted in Joseph's enslavement (Genesis 37). Our large group time always ends with wondering questions that are meant to help the children enter into and experience that week's story. The wondering questions for this week focused some on the feelings of the characters--mainly the feelings of the brothers when Jacob favored Joseph and then Joseph's feelings when he was betrayed by his brothers.

The curriculum didn't really emphasize what actions were, "right" or "wrong" in the story. It didn't come out and say that Joseph's brothers sinned by selling Joseph off to traders. Or that Jacob sinned when he treated one of his children as more important than the rest. A few weeks later I had an interesting conversation with some volunteers who had a hard time not pointing out the blatant right and wrong in the story. I get this--as parents we want to make sure our kids know that mistreating your sibling is wrong. But is that really the point of this story? Is the point really that Joseph's brothers sinned? Or even that Jacob sinned? Or is the point that we all sin and yet God uses our meager efforts for His glory?

I'm often left feeling a little uncomfortable with our need to emphasize the morals in stories like this one of Joseph and his brothers. We want there to be right and wrong in our world. We want those following the rules to prosper and those going against them to suffer. We want our kids to know that good behavior will be rewarded and bad behavior punished. But we live in a fallen world. The truth is this might not always be the case.

Joseph's brothers essentially get away with selling their brother into slavery without major consequences. Sure, eventually there's the whole irony of them having to beg him for food, but they don't have any real, blatant punishment for their actions. And maybe that's part of the point. Being a true story, it reflects how things happen in our fallen world. People don't always get what they deserve. That doesn't mean that God was ok with their actions--but I am certain that God wasn't hindered by them.

I think that often, when we get stuck in right and wrong, we emphasize the wrong point to our children. The point of Joseph's enslavement isn't that his brothers did something bad. Anyone really entering the story automatically senses that the brothers did something bad. The point of the story isn't that you should be nice to your siblings. (Though you should!)

The point of the story is God's moving and working through broken people. The point is God using Joseph's rough circumstances to save an entire geographical area from famine. The point is that God uses us, even though we're broken, sinful people. God uses our actions for good, when we mean them for harm. The point is about God and his work--why do we make it about us?