Two Deaths - Genesis 50:1-26
INTRODUCTION:
Last Sunday we had a short break from Genesis as we celebrated Mother’s Day, this week we come back to Genesis and this morning we will finish the book. I began the book of Genesis April 15, 2012, five years ago, we have taken some breaks and done New Testament studies, but it has been a long haul. Some of you have been here since I started, some of you have been added since that time, some have gone on to their eternal home and some are no longer with us.
Next week we will go to the other end of our Bibles and begin a new study in the book of Revelation. How is your reading of the book of Revelation going? You have one more week to read it before we start next Sunday. If you have already read it once, I encourage you to read it again this week. I am excited to start and see what God will teach us from Revelation.
Two Sundays ago we finished Genesis 49 with the words, “When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.” (Genesis 49:33, NASB95)[1] The beginning of chapter 50 is a continuation of that scene with Israel’s sons gathered around his bed. He had just blessed his sons with the blessing appropriate to each of them, then he charged them with his burial wishes and drew his feet into his bed and passed into his eternal home.
Chapter 50 is a continuation of this scene and then a summing up of the history of Joseph. Let’s pray and then read our passage for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 50, verses 1-26. Please stand if you are able for the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Genesis 50:1-26,
“Then Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him and kissed him. Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Now forty days were required for it, for such is the period required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. When the days of mourning for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, ‘If now I have found favor in your sight, please speak to Pharaoh, saying, “My father made me swear, saying, ‘Behold, I am about to die; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.’” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’ Pharaoh said, ‘Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.’ So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the household of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household; they left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen. There also went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company. When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he observed seven days mourning for his father. Now when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, ‘This is a grievous mourning for the Egyptians.’ Therefore it was named Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had charged them; for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field for a burial site from Ephron the Hittite. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!’ So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, ‘Your father charged before he died, saying, “Thus you shall say to Joseph, ‘Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong.’” ‘And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.’ And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, ‘Behold, we are your servants.’ But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.’ So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Now Joseph stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household, and Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim’s sons; also the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees. Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.’ Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ‘God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.’ So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.” (Genesis 50:1–26, NASB95)[2]
ISRAEL’S DEATH AND BURIAL (Genesis 50:1-13)
In these last two chapters of Genesis God has allowed us to see a very private and solemn moment between Israel and his sons, a scene that is not often seen from the outside. When someone we love dies we feel the loss deeply. Just this week as I was going through some papers I came across something that was about my Dad who I lost this past summer and I felt that loss again. For many the grief of losing someone close to you is more than you can bear alone, and that is why programs like Grief Share that Angela shared about this morning are so important, because you do not have to bear it alone, but you can be supported by a group of people who are experiencing or have experienced the loss of a loved one themselves. Grief is a normal part of life, but praise God that believers do not grieve “as others who have no hope.”
When Israel drew his last breath and passed into his eternal home Joseph immediately felt the loss, we read that he fell upon his father and wept and kissed him. Joseph did not let the dignity of his important office smother his true feelings of grief. When someone we love dies, God expects us to weep. That is why He gave us the ability to shed tears, normal tears are a part of the healing process. Abnormal grief only keeps the wounds open and prolongs the pain. Often people who suppress their grief are in danger of developing emotional or physical problems that are difficult to heal. Joseph did not suppress his grief, but at the same time Joseph knew that he must make preparations to move the body of his father to Canaan, because of the distance Joseph arranged to have his physicians embalm the body of Israel. We are told that the embalming process took 40 days to be completed. Also, the Egyptians mourned for Israel for 70 days, which may have included the 40 days of embalming and then 30 more days. This 70 day period of mourning was only practiced for very important people, only a Pharaoh received a long mourning period of 72 days. Joseph’s position as the second highest ruler in the land made his father an important man in the land of Egypt as well, and out of respect for Joseph they mourned for Israel.
It is interesting that Joseph did not go directly to Pharaoh to ask if he could carry his father’s body back to Canaan to bury him, but went through Pharaoh’s household. We are not told why he did this, but for whatever reason the message was conveyed to Joseph that Pharaoh had told him to keep his oath to his father and carry his body up to Canaan to bury it. This phrase used in verse 5 “the grave which I dug for myself” does not refer to a hole dug in the ground, but to a shelf hewed out of the rock in the cave that Israel’s body is to be placed upon.
So a great company of people went with Joseph and his brothers as they went up to bury their father. The elders or advisors of Pharaoh’s court, all the elders of the land of Egypt and the household of Joseph and the households of his brothers. They only left their small children and their flocks in Goshen. They also had chariots and horsemen which were most likely soldiers who went as an armed escort. Then we read that they came to the threshing floor of Atad that is beyond the Jordan. This phrase “beyond the Jordan” is a difficult phrase to translate, it can also mean “near the Jordan.” If it is beyond the Jordan it is difficult to understand why they were on the other side of the Jordan. It has been suggested that they possibly traveled through the south staying in Egyptian territory as long as possible and then went north along the eastern side of the Dead Sea and came around the northern end of the dead sea and came to this threshing floor that was a large flat smooth area where they could stop and rest. Whether this place is on the east or west side of the Jordan they stopped here and Joseph lamented for his father with all the people that had come up with him from Egypt and they mourned there for 7 days. The Canaanites living in the land observed that this was Egyptians and that they very sorrowful and they were mourning and they named the place “Abel-mizraim” Which is a bit of a play on words, the word “Abel” means “meadow,” but it sounds like “Ebel” which means “mourning” so the name means the “meadow or mourning” of the “mizraim” which is the Hebrew word for “Egyptians.”
After the seven days of mourning the sons of Israel carried his body to the cave in the field of Machpelah which is near Mamre and there they laid him to rest placing him in the cave where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah were also buried. Then the whole company returned to Egypt.
ARE YOU FORGIVEN (Genesis 50:14-21)
Upon their return to Egypt the 10 older brothers began to worry that Joseph still held a grudge against them for all the evil they had done to him. Maybe it was only their father that had kept him from repaying them for their evil. Now that their father was dead Joseph might use his position and power to get his revenge and punish them for what they had done to him. They became very afraid of what Joseph might do to them.
For us who read this history so many centuries later we ask ourselves, why are they afraid, when Joseph revealed himself to them did he not forgive them, wept over them, kissed them, and gave them ample evidence of his love for them? Did he not explain to them that what they had meant for evil God in His sovereignty overruled and made it good? Had not Joseph provided and cared for them and their families during the past 17 years? Why are they all the sudden afraid? The answer is simple, they did not believe their brother. Joseph’s gracious words and the loving way that he had treated them made no impact on their hearts. But you know, these brothers are no different from some professed Christians today who are constantly worrying about God’s judgment and whether He has really forgiven them and made them His children. If you have agreed with God that you are a sinner, and you believe that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, that His death paid the penalty for your sin, that He was buried and three days later rose from the dead proving that He had conquered Satan, sin, and death, then you are forgiven, you are saved from God’s judgment. Paul said in Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1, NASB95)[3] If we are in Christ Jesus we cannot be condemned, if we cannot be condemned we cannot be judged, we are saved from God’s judgment against sin. Then in the end of that same chapter Paul tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord. We can know that God loves us and forgives those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ because His Word tells us so, and we must never judge His Word by our feelings. If Joseph’s brothers would have calmly reviewed all that Joseph had said to them and all that Joseph had done for them they would have realized that their fears were uncalled for, Joseph had demonstrated his love for them and his forgiveness for them and had given them every reason to believe that what they had done in the past was over and forgotten.
They were so afraid that instead of going to Joseph, they sent a message saying that Israel before he died had asked Joseph to forgive his brothers for all the wrong they had done to him. Did Israel really say these words? Probably not, if he wanted to intercede for his guilty sons he would done so during the 17 years he was alive in Egypt. Joseph wept when he received the message, he was deeply hurt that his own brothers didn’t believe his words or believe that all he had done for them were true expressions of his love and forgiveness. What more could he do to convince them.
Whether Joseph summoned his brothers or they came to see how he responded to the message they had sent, they came before him and bowed before him, their last bow in fulfillment of Joseph’s prophetic dreams. They did not believe that Joseph would freely forgive them and they offered to be his slaves. Do we have to work our way to the place that God can forgive us and accept us? No, God’s forgiveness is a free gift offered to us through Jesus Christ, the only people God can forgive are those who know they are sinners, who admit and confess that they cannot do anything to merit or earn God’s forgiveness, all sinners have to admit their guilt, abandon their proud efforts to earn salvation and throw themselves on the mercy of the Lord Jesus who died for them. God assures us that we have indeed been forgiven and that He has forgotten our sin. Just as God has made this known to us through His Word Joseph spoke to his brothers. Twice he told them not to be afraid. He told them that God is the judge of men’s hearts and he was not in the place of God. He promised again to provide for them and their families. The end of verse 21 says that Joseph comforted them and spoke kindly to them, this phrase “spoke kindly to them” translated literally means “that he spoke to their hearts.” He assured them of his love and forgiveness, that they had nothing to fear, he did not minimize their sins for he said, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” (Genesis 50:20, NASB95)[4] Joseph knew they had evil in their hearts, but he also knew that God had overruled their evil deeds to accomplish His good purposes. This reminds us of what happened on the cross. Out of the greatest sin ever committed by humankind, God brought the greatest blessing that ever came to humankind, the salvation of many people. Joseph’s brothers had lived under a cloud of fear and apprehension for 17 years all because they didn’t really trust him. Had they believed Joseph, they could have enjoyed those years with him and their father, and there wouldn’t have been clouds of fear to rob them of joy.
As God’s children through our faith in Jesus Christ, let’s rejoice that are sins are forgiven and forgotten, wiped away and remembered no more. Let’s believe what God says! The old life has been buried and we can walk in newness of life!
THE END OF JOSEPH’S LIFE (Genesis 50:22-26)
The last five verses give us a summary of the rest of Joseph’s life, that he and his father’s household stayed in Egypt and Joseph lived to be 110 years old. Joseph lived to see his great grandsons from Ephraim and the sons of Manasseh’s son Machir we are told were born on Joseph’s knees, a phrase that means they were adopted as his sons in place of Ephraim and Manasseh who had become the sons of Israel.
At the end of his life he called his brothers to him, or the heads of his brothers’ families and told them that he was about to die. He also assured them that God would take care of them and he reminded them that Egypt was not their home and said that God would bring them up out of the land of Egypt and into the land that He had promised to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob. Then he made the sons to Israel swear that when God brought them out of Egypt that they would carry his bones up with them and bury his bones in the promised land. He did not want to be left in Egypt, he wanted to be buried in the land that God had promised to give to the Israelites. Then at 110 years of age Joseph died and he was embalmed and placed in a casket, most likely a sarcophagus in Egypt. That sarcophagus was a reminder to the children of Israel during their 400 years of slavery that God would take care of them and bring them out of the land of Egypt. In Exodus 13:19 we read, “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, ‘God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones from here with you.’” (Exodus 13:19, NASB95)[5] and in Joshua 24:32 we read, “Now they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the piece of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons.” (Joshua 24:32, NASB95)[6] Joseph finally laid to rest in the Promised Land in the piece of property promised to him by his father.
CONCLUSION:
As we consider the life of Joseph we cannot depart from the book of Genesis without talking about his faith. Here is a man that left a legacy for his family, and not just the last 17 years of his life, but his whole life was a life lived by faith. Our Scripture reading this morning from Hebrews 11 says, “By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.” (Hebrews 11:22, NASB95)[7] God’s promises to Abraham were passed down to Isaac and then down to Jacob and he shared them with Joseph. Faith is not some emotion that we work up in ourselves, neither is it an optimistic attitude of I hope so. True faith is grounded in the infallible Word of God, and because God said it, we believe it and act upon it. True faith always leads to obedient action. Joseph knew what he believed and where he belonged. Because of this he did not want his coffin to remain in Egypt when God delivered His people. He made his brothers swear that they would instruct their descendants, who would then pass the word along to future generations, and they kept their promise. Joseph’s faith in God never faltered and even when he died his coffin was a constant reminder to the people of Israel of a man who lived by faith and believed the promises of God.
Genesis begins with life and ends in death, a sad reminder of the effects of sin on this world and on mankind. But for the man who lives by faith in the promises of God, even in death he leaves a legacy for those who are left to believe in the promises of God and to live by faith in the God who is faithful.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[6]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[7]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995