Manasseh and Ephraim
Gen 48:8-18
Joseph is vexed. Perhaps the only flash of unrighteous indignation we ever see on his face. A remarkable irony that he should take up the cause of his first-born son Manasseh when his brothers despised him largely because Jacob preferred him though he was eleventh born.
Expectations are a curious thing. The perfect narrative of how things “should be”. We measure ourselves and our circumstances in this way.
Rightly used, we call these “standards”. We can’t live without this, both for ourselves and for those around us.
But where do these expectations come from? And what to do when our circumstances fail to meet our expectations?
