Blessed Beyond Our Pain

Genesis 41: 51-52

Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, meaning, “God has made me forget all my hardship in my father’s house.” And the second son he named Ephraim, meaning, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

I find the names Joseph gave his sons to be very insightful and profound regarding the work God did in his life. After 15-16 years of slavery and imprisonment, God finally promoted Joseph to the second highest position in Egypt, a true miracle produced from the gift God had given him to be able to interpret dreams. God’s timing and purpose finally intersected and propelled Joseph from the pit of a prison to the palace with a promotion to fulfill the divine purpose of God for the nation of Israel and all mankind. 

Joseph named his firstborn son Manasseh, meaning, “God has made me forget all my hardship in my father’s house.” This tells me that until the birth of his first son, Joseph had remembered what his brothers did to him. I don’t think for one minute that Joseph actually failed to remember his hardship. The meaning of the word, “forget,” is more closely aligned with “forgive.” With the birth of Manasseh, God had blessed Joseph to the point that he could finally let go of the extremely harsh, cold, cruel, and unjust thing his brothers did to him by selling him into slavery. God blessed him beyond his pain, and that blessing was much greater that what had been done to him.

While Joseph was bound as a slave, the hurt from his brothers created a soul wound. Such a wound would have kept him bound, even after the physical chains were removed. With the blessings of promotion, a wife, and family, God did a healing in Joseph’s soul that freed him from the unjust loss of his father’s house (family). 

God didn’t stop with a healing alone. He gave Joseph a second son, which he named Ephraim, meaning, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Ephraim also means, “double fruit.” God promoted Joseph, gave him a family, and made him productive in what He called him to do. Because the road for Joseph to get where God ultimately wanted him to be was so extremely difficult, God blessed him beyond the pain it took to get there and accomplished great things through him.

If you are having trouble with a soul wound today, know that God sees and He cares. For whatever reason He has allowed you to experience such great hurt, He has a plan that far exceeds your expectations of what you thought life should have been. Trust Him in this pain, and wait for His promotion. He can bless you far beyond the pain that keeps you bound and give you something far greater than the hurt you’ve experienced. Then, He can make you fruitful in the vey place you have hurt the most. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him.

Have a blessed day!