"Now I am claiming as my own sons these two boys of yours, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born here in the land of Egypt before I arrived. They will be my sons, just as Reuben and Simeon are. But any children born to you in the future will be your own, and they will inherit land within the territories of their brothers Ephraim and Manasseh. (Genesis 48:5, 6 NLT)
Adoption is God's idea. It has always been his idea. We have already seen how he adopts Abraham's family as his people & promises to make them into a great nation so that he can adopt more people into his family from all nations. Those of us who are in Christ have been adopted into the family of God. We are not naturally born in.
Genesis 48 also talks about the adoption of Joseph's sons into Jacob's family. We see a couple of neat applications.
Jacob adopted Joseph's sons because of his choice, not because of anything they had done. He made them sons not because of anything he saw in them (he was half blind) but because of his love for Joseph. In the same way, we are not adopted into God's family because of anything we have done but just by God's grace & choice.
Also, Jacob says in 48:5 that Ephraim & Manasseh are sons just like Reuben & Simeon are sons. They are given full rights & privileges that come with being sons. We who are in Christ have the full rights & privileges as sons even though we have been adopted in. We have the same inheritance that Jesus does. We are co-heirs of all of the promises of God in Christ!
It is on this basis & this basis alone that we adopt! There are a lot of reasons to adopt but the primary motivation we have is because of the gospel & our own adoption as sons of God. We adopt because we have been adopted. We give the rights of sonship because we have been given them. We adopt because we want to give our earthly kids a picture of what our heavenly father gave us.
How is God leading us in adoption? How can we give, pray, & adopt for the glory of God?
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