God led the writer of Genesis to bare the truth about every area of Joseph’s colorful life. He permits us to see what the person was actually like within, even what he was thinking. We will sum it up in one sentence : his heart was humble before God. Why does the writer add these details? First, I believe he would like us to know that Joseph was monogamous. He did not fall into the mistake of polygamy, like so many surrounding him—even his very own family. He had one wife, and she bore him 2 boys.

2nd , and more important, the writer would like us to realize the importance found in the names of Joseph’s boys. In naming his boys as he did, Joseph announced brazenly that God had made him forget all his difficulties, even those in his pa’s household. Above and beyond that, God had made him successful in a place and in circumstances that had brought him nothing apart from difficulty.

It is really tantalizing to try and get vengeance on the Reubens and the Judahs and the Dans and the Mrs Potiphars from our past. To get back at people who have stung us and stripped us and hurt us with noxious deeds and foul words. Instead, we must give birth to a Manasseh.

Could it be that it is time to ask the Lord God to erase the stings in your memory? Only he will be able to do that. Then it’ll be time to go on to give birth to an Ephraim. To recollect how God has extravagantly sanctified us. Talk about a positive, attesting name : “God has made me fruitful.” But it does not stop there. With the plural ending, this word conveys the idea of double benefit—multiple blessings. It’s what we might call “superabundance.” And it was God who did it all.