Word of the Day: “the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance along with his sons.” Joshua 17:6
The daughters of Manasseh were bold, bold enough to go up and request ownership of what had been promised to them; land. Every Hebrew name in the Bible has tremendous meaning behind it, so when we find them we can dig deeper and find a hidden second meaning in a story or verse if we look up the meanings of the names. In this particular verse the Holy Spirit tugged at my heart strings for the name Manasseh. In this verse the daughters could have been referred to as the daughters of Zelophehad, because that is whose daughters they were. Istead, they were referred to as the daughters of Manasseh. So I flipped back to Genesis 41 to the story of Joseph and then skimmed until I found the names of his two sons in verse 51. “Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. ‘For,’ he said, ‘God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house.'”
For thirteen years Joseph went through some really low spots in life, his brothers threw him in a pit and planned on killing him. Only to then decided to profit from him instead and sell him into slavery. Then he served in Potiphar’s house as his faithful slave for many years until Potiphar’s wife wrongfully accused him of molesting her and he was thrown into prison for doing the right thing and running away from her! He was in prison several years, met some gentlemen, interpreted their dreams for them and asked them to remember him when they got out… well the one that lived anyway. But the cupbearer forgot about Joseph when he got out of prison and Joseph sat there for a few more years, just waiting for his chance. Waiting for God to set him free; free to fulfill the purpose he had been created for. And then that day came. And Pharaoh called for Joseph, bringing him out of jail and into the second highest position in the entire kingdom. Joseph was given a wife, who bore him children, the first of which Joseph named Manasseh. Why? Because his life had turned around so completely that he had to commemorate it with his son’s name. He didn’t ever want to forget this moment where God had come through is such a brilliant way that it made all the years of suffering and hardship make perfect sense. Suddenly Joseph could see clearly the fruit of all those years of waiting. They had made him strong and prepared him for what he was made to do; the saving of many lives.
These daughter’s of Manasseh, they are the daughters of that moment, the children of that time in Joseph’s life where everything was so good that he couldn’t remember the hard stuff that lead up to it. These daughters received the inheritance that was promised to them along with all the other sons of Manasseh because those daughters were just as important in the eyes of God as the sons were.
Times may be tough right now, but they won’t always be. Times of refreshing will come, not may come, they WILL come. But don’t live in those moments if they’re not here yet. Live in the moment you are currently standing in. It’s the only one you’ve been given and it’s a gift, that’s why they call it the present. Is this moment painful? Live in it. Live in this pain, KNOWING with certainty that it will not last forever. Live in this moment right now knowing that this pain has purpose and meaning. And while you may not know what that purpose or meaning is right now, know that there will come a time when you will have a moment named Manasseh where everything from the past will come into focus and it will all make sense and it will all be so good that you will be able to thank God for those hurts of the past. Because you will be able to see how those hurts caused you to grow in the direction He was pointing you.
Think about the cross. That moment was the absolute lowest point of many of those Disciples lives, and it was certainly the lowest point of Mary’s life. Her completely innocent baby boy was hanging on a cross! But now we, and Mary, can look back at that moment as the BEST, most high moment in all of history! On that day, in that moment, none of those people knew what was really happening. But today, in this moment, we do. While there is no way for us to fully understand what all happened in that moment of the cross, we certainly understand so much more than they did.
We each have a cross to bear; but we don’t carry it alone. Jesus carries it with us, because He is always with us and will never forsake us.
He loves you.
Tamar Knochel 