Like Ephraim

May God make you like Ephraim,

Joseph’s second-born

Whose name means

“Twice Fruitful”—

You’re destined to be more fruitful

Than you can now imagine.

Joseph had a dream

But he never could have seen this coming!

After thirty years of abuse, trauma, slavery, false imprisonment

God put him on a throne in Egypt.

It looked like he was going to die in an Egyptian dungeon.

Instead, God used him to save the world from famine—

To save his own family from starvation.

I bless you for a year of double fruit—

May whatever good you can imagine be doubled.

Fruit, sweet fruit,

Not the stuff of raw ambition and worldly success,

But fruit, the byproduct of the branch

Abiding on the vine.

May God’s Spirit nourish you, fill you

And produce fruit in and through you.

I bless you to be like “Ephraim”—twice fruitful.

_______________________

Today’s blessing is inspired by the mysterious scene of Jacob blessing his grandsons with crossed arms:

Genesis 48:20 (ESV) — 20 So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, ‘God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’” Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

As I explain fully in my new book, The Power to Bless (Baker Books, releasing Feb 2, 2021), for 3700 years, Jewish fathers have blessed their children to be “as Ephraim and Manasseh” and no rabbi seems to know why. But, in Christ, it makes sense! In Him, we bear much fruit—we have become “twice fruitful”—abundantly more fruitful by the power of the Spirit than we ever could be on our own. And that’s the Gospel! Pre-order the book today from Amazon and get an audiobook FREE!