“Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn” (Genesis 48:14).
Have you ever been driving, and your passenger tells you, “Turn left.” But when you start to turn left your passenger says, “No, I said turn left!” You tell your friend, “I am turning left,” to which she replies,
“Oh, I guess you’re right.” Many people confuse their left and right. John R. Clarke of Drexel University believes that one out of five people are directionally challenged.
Right/left confusion is not a type of dyslexia or a neurological disorder. The hesitation some people have to quickly and correctly identify their right or left hand seems to be related to brain lateralization—that is, how your left and right brain hemispheres communicate. Spatial reasoning also appears to be connected to left/right confusion. Those who struggle with mentally rotating images are more likely to confuse their right and left.
When the elderly Jacob called his son Joseph to bring his children before him so that he could bless them, Manasseh, the eldest son of Joseph, must have thought his grandfather had a moment of left/right confusion. Joseph carefully placed his teenaged sons before Jacob with Manasseh on the grandfather’s right and Ephraim on his left. But when Jacob reached out to bless these children, he crossed his arms and placed his right hand on the younger boy.
Joseph attempted to correct his father by pointing out that Manasseh was the elder son, but Jacob refused to switch his hands and said, “I know, my son, I know. … but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he” (Genesis 48:19). It’s not the first time in Genesis that the second-born received the blessing of the firstborn. It happened to Jacob himself.
Even though Jacob lost much of his physical eyesight, he did not lose his prophetic insight. Ephraim did become a greater tribe than Manasseh. Even so, this smaller tribe still symbolized a portion of God’s people in Revelation 7:6. The Lord never gets confused about His children.
Precious Lord, I bow before You today to receive Your blessing. Place Your strong hand of protection over me.
