Genesis 48

"But his father refused and said, 'I know, my son, I know!  He too will become a tribe, and he too will be great; nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a populous nation.'"

Genesis 48:19

So far, all of Abraham's line have given the greatest inheritance to the younger brother, rather than the firstborn.  Abraham blessed Isaac instead of Ishmael.  Isaac blessed Jacob instead of Esau.  Now Jacob blesses Joseph's youngest son, Ephraim - the youngest son of his youngest son.

In many of these cases, someone (whether another son, a wife, or some other person) has questioned this, saying that the inheritance belongs to the oldest son.  However, there's never anything telling us why these people think it should go to the firstborn.  We take for granted that the oldest son should get the inheritance because that's what we're taught.  However, we see that God's own Chosen People don't follow that tradition!  In most of these cases, it's even God Himself who tells the father to give the inheritance to a younger child!

I'm not advocating this because I want my father to give me everything when he passes (hopefully, he'll live a hundred more years!), but rather because I think it's important to see the reasons why these younger sons were chosen instead of their older siblings.

First, we saw Abraham give inheritance to Isaac because he was born to Sarah, Abraham's wife, whereas his brother Ishmael was born to a servant, an extra-marital union which should never have happened in the first place.  Isaac was the son God had promised to Abraham.

Second, we saw Isaac give blessing to Jacob instead of Esau because of a trick.  Jacob (and his mother) out-smarted Esau, who was more of a brutish type of person.  This doesn't necessarily make it right, but Jacob showed initiative and cunning.

Third, we see Jacob (Israel) giving his blessing to his grandson through Joseph.  Joseph was the youngest of his brothers, but Jacob loved him best of all, according to the earlier verses in Genesis.  It was never explained fully why he preferred Jacob, but there were plenty of hints to show that it's at least in part because Joseph was a talented, hard-working, intelligent young man.  Hence, he gets more reward than his older brothers do.  As for choosing between Joseph's children, Jacob was just repeating what God had told him about the younger boy's future.

Question: wherever you are in your family's line of succession, how much (if any) inheritance do you deserve, and why?  If/when you have children of your own, how will you divide their inheritance, and why?