John Calvin Commentary Genesis 48

After these things. Moses now passes to the last act of Jacob’s life, which, as we will see, was especially worthy of remembrance. For, since he knew that he was invested by God with an extraordinary role, in being made the father of the fathers of the Church, he fulfilled, as death approached, the prophetic office concerning the future state of the Church, which had been entrusted to him.

Private individuals arrange their domestic affairs through their last wills, but the method pursued by this holy man was very different. God had established his covenant with him, with the attached condition that the succession of grace should flow down to his posterity. But before I enter fully into considering this subject, two things to which Moses briefly alludes should be noted: first, that Joseph, being informed of his father’s sickness, immediately went to see him; and, secondly, that Jacob, having heard of his arrival, attempted to raise his feeble and trembling body to honor him.

Certainly, the reason Joseph was so eager to see his father, and so prompt in discharging all the other duties of filial piety, was that he regarded it as a greater privilege to be a son of Jacob than to preside over a hundred kingdoms. For, in bringing his sons with him, he acted as if he would emancipate them from the country in which they had been born and restore them to their own lineage. For they could not be counted among the descendants of Abraham without making themselves hated by the Egyptians. Nevertheless, Joseph prefers that reproach for them over every kind of wealth and glory, so that they might become one with the sacred body of the Church.

His father, however, rising in his presence, pays him appropriate honor for the kindness received from him. Meanwhile, by doing so, he fulfills his part in the prediction that had previously inflamed his other sons with rage, so that his act of constituting Ephraim and Manasseh as heads of two tribes would not seem grievous and offensive to them.

And Jacob said unto Joseph. The holy man's design was to withdraw his son from the wealth and honors of Egypt and to reunite him with the holy race, from which he had been separated for a short time. Moreover, he neither proudly boasts of his own excellence, nor of his present riches, nor of his power, to induce his son to comply with his wishes; but simply presents to him the covenant of God.

Similarly, it is right that the grace of adoption, as soon as it is offered to us, should fill our thoughts and thereby extinguish our desire for everything splendid and costly in the world. This passage is undoubtedly remarkable.

Joseph possessed the most exalted dignity; he foresaw that the most excellent nobility would pass to his posterity through the memory of his name. He was able to leave them an ample patrimony, nor would it have been difficult to advance them so far in royal favor that they might obtain rank among the nobles of the kingdom.

Too many examples show how easy it is not only to be caught but to be altogether fascinated by such allurements. Indeed, most people know from their own experience that as soon as the least ray of hope from the world shines upon us, we are torn away from the Lord and alienated from the pursuit of the heavenly life.

If a very few drops can thus intoxicate our flesh, how dangerous is it to drink from the full bowl? But to all the riches and honors of Egypt, Jacob opposes the vision in which God had adopted him and his descendants as His own people.

Therefore, whenever Satan tries to entangle us with the allurements of the world to draw us away from heaven, let us remember for what purpose we are called. This is so that, in comparison with the inestimable treasure of eternal life, everything the flesh would otherwise prefer may become loathsome to us.

For, if holy Joseph previously held an obscure vision in such esteem that, for this sole purpose, forgetting Egypt, he gladly crossed over to the despised flock of the Church, how shameful today is our folly, how vile our stupor, how detestable our ingratitude, if we are not, at least, equally affected when our heavenly Father, having opened the gate of His kingdom, invites us to Himself with unutterable sweetness?

At the same time, however, we must observe that holy Jacob does not impose vain imaginations to allure his son; instead, he presents to him the sure promise of God, on which he can safely rely.

This teaches us that our faith is rightly founded on nothing but the sole word of God, and also that this is a sufficiently firm support for faith, preventing it from ever being shaken or overthrown by any schemes whatsoever.

Therefore, whenever Satan attempts to draw us in different directions with his enticements, let us learn to turn our minds to the word of God and rely so firmly upon its hidden blessings that, with a lofty spirit, we may reject those things which the flesh now sees and touches. Jacob says that God appeared to him in the land of Canaan so that Joseph, aspiring to that land, might become alienated in his heart's affection from the kingdom of Egypt.

And blessed me. In this place, the word “blessed” does not mean the present effect or manifestation of a happy life, in the same way that the Lord is sometimes said to bless His people when He indeed declares, by the favor with which He watches over them, that He openly makes them happy because they are received under His protection.

But Jacob considers himself blessed because, having embraced the grace promised to him, he does not doubt its effect. And therefore, I take what immediately follows—namely, I will make thee fruitful, etc.—as explaining what precedes. Now the Lord promised that He would cause an assembly of nations to descend from him, because thirteen tribes, which constituted the whole body of the nation, were, in a sense, like so many nations.

But since this was nothing more than a prelude to the greatness that would follow later, when God, having scattered seed over the whole world, would gather a church for Himself from all nations, we may, while recognizing the fulfillment of the blessing under the old covenant, yet allow that it refers to something greater.

Therefore, when the people increased to such a great multitude, and thirteen populous tribes descended from the twelve patriarchs, Jacob already began to grow into an assembly of nations. But from the time the spiritual Israel was spread through all parts of the world, and various nations were gathered into one Church, this multiplication moved towards its completion.

Therefore, it is no wonder that holy Jacob so highly esteemed this most distinguished mark of divine favor, though it was indeed deeply hidden from carnal perception. But because the Lord had kept him in suspense for a long time, profane men have said that the old man was in his dotage.

Indeed, few are to be found in this age like Joseph, who, disregarding the enjoyment of pleasures at hand, yield entire submission to the plain declaration of God’s word.

But just as Jacob, relying confidently on invisible grace, had overcome every kind of temptation, so now his son, the true heir of his faith, regards with reverence the oracles of the Lord. He esteems more highly the promise he was persuaded had come down from heaven—though it was in the form of a dream—than all the riches of Egypt he enjoyed.

For an everlasting possession. We have shown elsewhere the meaning of this expression: namely, that the Israelites would be perpetual heirs of the land until the coming of Christ, by which the world was renewed.

The Hebrew word עולם (olam) is understood by some to mean merely a long time, and by others eternity. But seeing that Christ prolongs to the end of time the grace that was previously foreshadowed to the patriarchs, the phrase, in my judgment, refers to eternity.

For that portion of land was promised to the ancient people of God until the renewal introduced by Christ. And now, ever since the Lord has assigned the whole world to His people, a fuller enjoyment of the inheritance belongs to us.

And now your two sons. Jacob confers on his son the special privilege that he, being one person, should establish two tribal heads; that is, that his two sons should inherit an equal right with their uncles, as if they were primary heirs.

But what is this! That a decrepit old man assigns to his grandchildren, as a royal patrimony, a sixth part of the land in which he had entered as a stranger, and from which he is now an exile once more! Who would not have said that he was dealing in fables? It is a common proverb that no one can give what he does not have.

What, therefore, did Joseph gain by being established, through an imaginary title, as lord of that land—a land in which its donor was barely allowed to drink the very water he had dug for with great effort, and from which, eventually, famine expelled him?

But from this it appears with what firm faith the holy patriarchs relied upon the word of the Lord, since they chose rather to depend on His words than to possess a permanent dwelling in the land.

Jacob is dying as an exile in Egypt; yet, meanwhile, he calls the governor of Egypt away from his high position into exile, so that Joseph might be truly well and happy.

Joseph, because he acknowledges his father as a prophet of God who speaks no fabrications of his own, esteems the dominion offered to him—which has not yet materialized—as highly as if it were already in his possession.

Moreover, Jacob’s command that any other sons of Joseph (if he were to have others) be counted among the families of these two brothers is as if he directed them to be adopted by the two whom he adopts for himself.

And as for me, when I came from Padan. He mentions the death and burial of his wife Rachel, so that the name of his mother might be a stimulus to Joseph's mind.

For since all the sons of Jacob had come from Syria, it was highly relevant that they should be thoroughly familiar with the history we have previously considered: specifically, that their father, returning to the land of Canaan by the command and under the protection of God, brought his wives with him.

For if it was not a hardship for the women to leave their father and journey to a distant land, their example ought to be a significant incentive for their sons to say farewell to Egypt; and at the command of the same God, to earnestly prepare themselves to take possession of the land of Canaan.

And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons. I have no doubt that he had inquired concerning the youths before he called them his heirs. But in the narration of Moses there is a hysteron proteron. And in the answer of Joseph we observe, what we have elsewhere alluded to, that the fruit of the womb is not born by chance, but is to be reckoned among the precious gifts of God.

This confession indeed finds a ready utterance from the tongues of all; but there are few who heartily acknowledge that their seed has been given them by God. And for this reason, a large proportion of humankind’s offspring becomes continually more and more degenerate, because the ingratitude of the world renders it unable to perceive the effect of the blessings of God.

We must now briefly consider the design of Moses, which was to show that a solemn symbol was interposed by which the adoption might be ratified. Jacob puts his hands upon his grandsons; for what purpose? Truly, to prove that he gave them a place among his sons, and thus constitutes Joseph, who was one, into two chiefs.

For this was not his wish as a private person, nor was it merely in keeping with the way fathers and grandfathers are accustomed to pray for prosperity for their descendants; rather, a divine authority suggested it, as was afterwards proved by the event. Therefore, he commands them to be brought near to him, that he might confer on them a new honor, as if he had been appointed the dispenser of it by the Lord; and Joseph, on the other hand, begins with adoration, giving thanks to God.