“May God bless you and watch over you.
May God shine His face toward you and show you favor.
May God shine His face toward you and grant you peace.”
Jewish Blessing
The Father’s Blessing is an awe-inspiring Jewish tradition. The father lifts his hands, and the child bows his head in front of the father. This is done every week in many households on Sabot which is the Jewish Sabbath. It doesn’t matter if the father is a great sage or a simple man, the blessing draws its power from the sincerity of the father.
Ephraim and Manasseh were the two boys born to Joseph in Egypt in the Old Testament. Joseph had been through a tremendous Wilderness season where he was betrayed, forgotten, abused, tempted, accused, and left for dead. Coming out of this thirteen year Wilderness season, he became second in command under Pharaoh of the largest kingdom in the known world at that time.
Right before Joseph’s father Jacob died, he spoke a blessing over Joseph’s boys for their inheritance. Jewish tradition has the father place his right hand on the oldest son’s head and the left on the younger son, but Jacob reversed his hands. The word Ephraim means double blessing and that is exactly what Jacob did. He gave Ephraim the double blessing instead of the first born son Manasseh. The name Manasseh means “forget my all my trouble” because Joseph wanted to forgot all of his pain in the Wilderness and his years of toiling.
We are coming into a season where we are crossing over and Ephraim is about to overtake Manasseh. God is about to give you a double blessing to forget the toiling and pain of the last season. All the years of pain you have gone through in the Wilderness will be forgotten, as you move into your double blessing – your own personal Promised Land!
“He blessed them that day and said, “In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’ So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.”
Genesis 48:20 (NIV)
Click here to read a Blessing over your children.
One fateful decision landed me smack in the middle of my own Wilderness…
Though I was obeying God’s voice, I spent the next several years “walking on water,” even though it felt more like I was treading water. A Journey Out of the Wilderness is for people going through a rough time—a Wilderness experience—where you feel as though you are “down for the count” and ready to give up. Wilderness Wanderers feel as though they are doing laps around the mountain, passing the same tree over and over again wondering, “Will this never end?” However, being in the Wilderness will be one of the most transformational times of your life.