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GENESIS 50
Jacob’s burial, the brothers’ fear and Joseph’s death -- (DATE: Between 1644 BC and 1590 BC)
DISCOVER Genesis 50: With his father dead, Joseph was overcome with grief and he cried over his corpse. His brothers also wept over the death of their father Jacob. -- Seeing the deep sorrow of Joseph, his brothers once more realized what they had robbed him of by selling him off and away from his father. So, while Joseph gathered the physicians of his household to embalm his father in order for him to be able to make good on the oath he had given him in his last days, the brothers worried. -- Now that Joseph no longer needed to appease their father, would he finally retaliate against them with the incredible might he had amassed in Egypt? So they sent a messenger to their brother, who was to tell him that their father had commanded that he please forgive his brothers the evil deed they did against him, and that he please may forgive their transgression against him as fellow servants of their God. Hearing that, Joseph was distraught and he couldn’t keep from crying when his brothers gathered before him and in obeisance fell down before him, proclaiming themselves servants and slaves to him. Instead of being angry, he went among them and assuaged them that yes, what they had done, they did in sin. But no matter what their initial intent might have been, their God had inverted it to good, so that many people would live, who otherwise would have died if they hadn’t done as they did to him. Therefore, since God intended for all this to happen, he was in no place to judge or speak ill of it. So, because of his kindness and God-fearing spirit, Joseph reconciled himself with his twelve brothers! -- Then Joseph went up to Pharaoh’s palace with a light heart to ask the servants there to pass on a request to him, that he might be allowed to go up to Canaan and bury his father there just as he had sworn to him. Of course he promised to return, once the deed was done, and he had buried his father Israel near where his forefathers lay buried. When Pharaoh heard this, he allowed him to do so, but only after he was properly mourned here in Egypt for seventy days. After that period Joseph, his household, his brothers and their households together with many servants of Pharaoh and elders of Egypt went up to the field near Mamre (today in Hebron), which Abraham had bought from the Hittites, to burry Jacob there. And on the way there they mourned him for seven more days. So big was their mourning at the threshing floor of Atad that the Canaanites wondered what the Egyptians were so upset about, which changed the name of the place to Abel-Mizraim (meaning “Mourning of Egypt”). -- When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph and the people accompanying him returned to Egypt, where he lived to the age of 110 years, enjoying the sight of the children and grandchildren of his sons Manasseh and Ephraim. When his life came to a close, he told those of his brothers still living and his own offspring that their God would come and visit them in the future to lead them back to the land he had promised them and their fathers as an eternal possession. Until then his bones would lay in Egypt with his kin. But when the time would come for God to lead them out of Egypt, at that time, he made the Sons of Israel swear, they were to carry his remains with them, to bury him in the land that had been promised them by their God. And so, after his death, his remains were embalmed according to Egyptian tradition and placed in a coffin (waiting to be taken to the Land of Canaan much later).
PRAYER: LORD God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, even your greatest men, your chosen servants, did not live eternally, because of your judgment on the sin of Adam, the forefather of us all. This includes Jacob and Joseph, even though they walked closely with you. They are dead, buried in their graves. Like us they await their resurrection from the dead at the End of Time to come before your judgment seat for you to judge them and us. As a holy God, you cannot forgive just like that. Thank you that in the fullness of time you sent your Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. By faith in Him, you do not have to pass a damning judgment over our sin, rather you can forgive us, without compromising your truth and consistency, because your Son took upon himself the punishment of our sins, which is death. Thank you that this also was the hope of your chosen servants Jacob and Joseph. In you we trust and thank you for the salvation you have completed for all mankind in Jesus Christ. Amen.
QUESTION 50: Why were Joseph’s brothers afraid of him after their father Jacob had died, and how did Joseph comfort them?