Manasseh

And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. – Genesis 41.50-52

One of the many things I love about God’s word is the fact that it is alive. I can study it and read it over and over again for decades and still find new things that I need but had not noticed before. So it is the the names of Joseph’s sons – Manasseh and Ephraim. I only recently delved into these two names during our men’s Bible study and I was touched and greatly moved.

After all he had been through and he was firmly settled in Egypt he got married and started a family. He named his first son Manasseh. It doesn’t look like a special name in English, but in Hebrew it has a powerful meaning.

Manasseh means ‘to forget.’ Joseph chose that name because, as he put it, God had made him forget all his labours and allowed him to forget what his family had done to him.

Choosing to forget sometimes is the only way to move on. Dwelling on the past ties us down to the past. It would be easy to focus on the hurts and pains and trials of the past and focus on the people who did those things or the circumstances that put us there and then anger and bitterness and such make is powerless and unable to move on.

But God allowed Joseph to forget those things and move forward.

Paul knew the importance of forgetting and moving on for the Christian. Paul wrote about ‘forgetting those things which are behind and pressing on toward the mark of the call of God in Christ.’

We all have things in the past that it is easy to dwell on. Many of these things  could discourage us or remind us of our weaknesses or failures. But we need not dwell there. We can move on. We can rejoice in God given forgetfulness.