GENESIS 50
Jacob dies in Egypt at age 147 (Genesis 47:28). Joseph is 56 years old (having been 39 when Jacob arrived in Egypt 17 years prior). Joseph leads a solemn procession to bury Jacob in the Cave of Mach-pe-lah in Canaan before returning to Egypt. From the death of Jacob to the death of Joseph, exactly 54 years pass in the biblical account of Genesis. Jacob dies at the age of 147 after living in Egypt for 17 years, and Joseph dies at the age of 110, having lived another 54 years after his father’s passing.
- Notice, you’re going to see even the Egyptians mourned for seventy days when Jacob died. His body was embalmed by the palace physicians. Then Pharaoh gave Joseph permission to accompany the body back to Canaan, with a great procession of officials, relatives, and servants. They stopped east of the Jordan and mourned for seven days so deeply that the Canaanites … called the place Abel Mizraim, meaning Meadow of Mourning of Egypt. Following the burial in the cave of Mach-pe-lah at Hebron, Joseph and his entourage returned to Egypt.
- Joseph continues to govern/live out his life in Egypt, seeing the generations of his children and grandchildren through Ephraim and Manasseh. Joseph dies at the age of 110. His body is placed in a coffin in Egypt, awaiting the eventual Exodus, where his bones are carried out to the Promised Land.
Genesis 50:1-7 Burial of Jacob New King James Version
1 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him, and kissed him.
- The passing of Jacob in the presence of his sons was a deeply moving and dramatic scene.
2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So, the physicians embalmed Israel.
- In the Bible, the embalming of Jacob (also called Israel) by physicians in Egypt is extremely rare. It is one of only two explicit accounts of full embalming recorded in scripture (the other being Joseph himself). While standard practice for Egyptian royalty and nobility, it was entirely contrary to normal Hebrew burial customs, happening only because Israel died in Egypt and needed preservation for a long transport back to Canaan. (Jewish tradition requires burying the deceased directly in the earth as soon as possible, prohibiting cremation, embalming, and open caskets)
3 Forty days were required for him, for such are the days required for those who are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
- Jacob was mourned for 70 days among the whole nation of Egypt. A royal mourning period in Egypt was 72 days. Jacob was obviously a greatly honored man.
4 Now when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying,
5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying; 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, and I will come back.’ ”
6 And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.”
- The fact that Joseph made his initial request, not directly to the ruler of Egypt, but spoke to the household of Pharaoh, this is the kind of detail that would be noted by a true witness of the events, and not made up by a storyteller.
7 So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
- This was a dramatic burial. The entire clan gathered together to pay tribute to the man who was the last link with the patriarchs. The life of this man’s grandfather overlapped with the sons of Noah.
GENESIS 50:8-14
8 as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.
9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great gathering.
10 Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father.
- This was, no doubt, a day of rededication of the sons of Israel to the God of Israel, the God of the great covenant made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their dedication to the God of Israel would be tested over the next four hundred years, but would survive.
11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a deep mourning of the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
12 So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them.
13 For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Mach-pe-lah, before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place.
14 And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.
GENESIS 50:15-18 Joseph Reassures His Brothers
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.”
- The brothers feared that perhaps Joseph would turn on them after Jacob’s death. Knowing human nature, this was certainly possible.
16 So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying,
- These guys are so insecure they bring their dead father into it, saying he made us ask!! It’s their own guilt that’s tormenting them. Stupid people sometimes (most times) have no idea of the character of the man standing before them because they have no good character in themselves. This can be very hurtful.
17 ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: “I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you.” ’ Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
- Here, they freely acknowledged all the evil which they did. What they worried about was justice. They feared righteous retribution. Joseph, with his high status and prestige in Egypt, was certainly capable of bringing this retribution. So, why did Joseph weep when they spoke to him? Joseph wept because it seemed that his brothers thought so little of him and they doubted his true character so greatly.
- It had been 17 years since they were reunited, Joseph thought they were well past that.
- This story of their father made them ask this, was probably made up. They didn’t feel they had the moral right to ask Joseph for mercy, since they sinned him so greatly. So, they threw their dead father under the bus by putting the request for mercy in his mouth would somehow make it better..
GENESIS 50:18-21
18 Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
19 Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
- They’re about to see the true character of this favored son, the boy with the coat of many colors, the coat these brothers poured blood on to convince their father he was dead, eaten by an animal.
20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
21 Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
- This is what good character looks like. Joseph didn’t have to remind them of their sin against him. Jesus doesn’t have to remind you of your sin against Him, you do that well enough on your own.
- Joseph first understood he was not in the place of God. It wasn’t his job to bring retribution upon his brothers. If the LORD chose to punish them, He would have to be the punisher, the director of their calamity, not Joseph.
- From a human perspective, Joseph had the right and the ability to bring retribution upon his brothers, but he knew God was God and he was not. Such retribution was God’s place, not Joseph’s.
Every Christian should be able to see the overarching and overruling hand of God in their life; to know that no matter what evil man or Satan brings against us, God can use it for good.
- Joseph did not have the text of Romans 8:28, but he had the truth of it: And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
- Sadly, many of us who have the text, do not have the truth of it.
Ultimately, our lives are not in the hands of men, but in the hands of God, who overrules all things for His glory. Good place for a story:
- There was an old minister who had a unique gift to minister to the distressed and discouraged. In his Bible, he carried an old bookmark woven of silk threads into a motto. The back of it, where the threads were knotted and tied, was a hopeless tangle. He would take the bookmark out and show the troubled person this side of the bookmark and ask them to make sense of it. They could not. Then the pastor would turn it over, and on the front were white letters against a solid background saying, “God is love.” When events in our life seem tangled and meaningless, it is because we can see only one side of the tapestry. (Pastor David Guzik)
Joseph said back in v.20: “To save many people alive”: This was the immediate good in the situation. If this large family did not come to Egypt and live, it would have perished in the famine.
- Had the family barely survived, it would have assimilated into the Canaanite tribes surrounding it. Only by coming to Egypt could they be preserved and grow into a distinct nation.
As said before, if Joseph’s brothers never sold him to the Midianites, then Joseph would never have gone to Egypt.
- If Joseph never went to Egypt, he would never have been sold to Potiphar.
- If Joseph was never sold to Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife would never have falsely accused him of rape.
- If Potiphar’s wife never falsely accused Joseph of rape, then Joseph would never have been put in prison.
- If Joseph was never put in prison, he would have never met the baker and butler of Pharaoh.
- If Joseph never met the baker and butler of Pharaoh, he would have never interpreted their dreams.
- If Joseph never interpreted their dreams, he would have never interpreted Pharaoh’s dream.
- If Joseph never interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he never would have become prime minister, second in Egypt only to Pharaoh.
- If Joseph never became prime minister, he never would have wisely prepared for the terrible famine to come.
- If Joseph never wisely prepared for the terrible famine, then his family back in Canaan would have died in the famine.
- If Joseph’s family back in Canaan died in the famine, then the Messiah could not have come from a dead family.
- If the Messiah did not come forth, then Jesus never came.
- If Jesus never came, then we are all dead in our sins and without hope in this world.
We are grateful for God’s great and wise plan.
GENESIS 50:22-26 Death of Joseph
22 So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household. And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years.
23 Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph’s knees.
- His long life was further evidence of God’s blessing on Joseph’s life, as was seeing Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The hardships of his life did not diminish God’s ultimate blessing upon him.
24 And Joseph said to his brethren, “I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
- Joseph was the human agent most responsible for bringing this family to Egypt. Yet he knew that because of the covenant God had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this would not be their resting place. They were headed — eventually — back to Canaan.
25 Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
26 So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
- This promise was fulfilled some 400 years later, when Israel left Egypt (Exodus 13:19). This command showed that Joseph’s heart was in the Promised Land. It also proved him to be a man of great faith, trusting in things not yet seen (Hebrews 11:22).
Hebrews 11:22 New King James Version
22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.
- All during that time, when a child of Israel saw Joseph’s coffin and asked what it was there for and why it was not buried, they could be answered, “Because the great man Joseph did not want to be buried in Egypt, but in the Promised Land God will one day lead us to.”
- Some promises of God take a long time to fulfill, and we must persevere in trusting God.
- George Mueller was a remarkable man of faith who ran orphanages in England. In a sermon he preached when he was 75 years old, he said over 30,000 times in his 54 years as a Christian he never received the answer to prayer on the same day he prayed it. He told of one prayer that he brought to God about 20,000 times over more than 11 years, but he still trusted God for the answer: “I hope in God, I pray on, and look for the answer. Therefore, beloved brethren and sisters, go on waiting upon God, go on praying.”
- Joseph died looking forward to God’s unfolding plan of redemption, and that is where the Book of Genesis — the Book of Beginnings —ends. It concludes looking forward to the continuation of God’s eternal, loving, wise plan for you and me…