A momentous occasion here. A momentous legal proceeding that took place here. And it is the giving of the birthright to the firstborn. Of course, we know that Jacob, or Israel I should call him, in this case chose Ephraim and then Manasseh, but he gave them both the firstborn inheritance, gave it to them jointly, although Israel gave more to Ephraim than to Manasseh.
Now, Jacob's question there in verse 8, "Who are these?" may sound a little funny because he should know. Did they not just discuss that he was bringing his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to him? But it sounds like he did not know who they were at all. But that is not the case. It is easily answered that he actually did know who they were, but there is a good reason for it. The first one, of course, was that he was blind. He could not see very well and so he was just making sure upon whom he was conferring the birthright. Also, it may just be a problem in translation, that we just cannot see it in English that he was saying, "Okay, which is which?" He may have been doing that because he could not see. And of course we have to remember that Jacob had not forgotten how he had gotten the birthright by deception and so he was asking the question to make sure that he would not be deceived as he had deceived Isaac.
The other thing that it may be, and I tend to lean towards this explanation, is that it may have been part of the formalities of the legal procedure, that he had to ask, "Who is coming before me to receive the inheritance?" So he was actually probably just going through the formalities of saying to Joseph, "Okay, who are these? Introduce these two to me so that we keep everything aboveboard and do it the way it is supposed to be done." If you would go back at some point to Genesis 27:18 you will find that Isaac asked the same thing of Jacob. "Who are you?" And of course he lied, and said, "I'm Esau." But then later on in the chapter I believe he actually asked Esau, "Who are you?" And he said, "Esau" and he was telling the truth but he had already given the blessing over to Jacob.
I do want you to note here throughout this passage, that is verse 8-22, Jacob is called Israel. He is not once called Jacob. In every case, he is called Israel, from the time the legal procedure started when he asked him, "Who are these?" he is always called Israel. And this is very important because Israel was his godly name, his divinely-given name. As a matter of fact, you could call it his legal name. He was Israel, Jacob was his birth name, and it was not worthy to be his legal name, if you will. Jacob means the supplanter. That is not the kind of name you want for something that is going to go into all eternity in terms of his character. No, he was called Israel, which is "prevailing with God." So this name is used and it is very important that it is used because it indicates God's sanction of passing of the birthright to Ephraim and Manasseh.
