1 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
7 And 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,
8 And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and 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 company.
10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:
13 For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.
23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.
24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
1. Jacob dies and the Egyptians mourn over him for seventy days.
2. Joseph requests Pharaoh’s approval to bury his father in the Cave of Machpelah in Canaan.
3. The family buries Jacob in the Cave of Machpelah.
4. Joseph’s brothers once again ask for his forgiveness for their evil actions against him.
5. Joseph dies.
Verses 1–3. The love that a son has for his father will express itself in many ways. It will certainly reveal itself upon the father’s death. Our chapter begins with Joseph weeping over his deceased father, while his friends grieve with him out of a common sympathy. You would hardly weep over the death of a stranger if you read of it in the obituary column of a large city newspaper. But when a loved one dies, everything that person has meant to you comes rushing back all at once. The emotional impact of the memories will bring you to tears. You weep in gratitude for his love, in sadness that you will never again be able to express your love to him, and in grief that the relationship is for the time being interrupted by death. No record is made of whether the other brothers expressed their love for their father, but it is clear that Joseph was devoted to him until the very end.
The Egyptians were greatly concerned with the burial of the dead. In the case of Jacob’s burial, they took a full forty days for the embalming of the body. This involved the application of certain chemicals that would preserve it. Very likely, the Egyptians employed the same methods used for the preservation of the bodies of their Pharaohs. Their 70-day period of mourning was excessive, as later in the chapter we read that Joseph limited it to seven days. When it comes to the tragedies of life, “There is a time to weep and a time to laugh” (Eccl. 3:4). Wisdom dictates, but those without hope in the resurrection will inevitably fail to strike the right balance in these circumstances. Men and women of true faith have no business soaking in hopeless grief indefinitely. As in the case of David upon the death of his child, we must hope in the resurrection. At some point, we wash our face and return to God’s worship and our daily responsibilities (2 Sam. 12:23-25). The way a Christian handles the death of a loved one is a true test of his faith.
Verses 4–13. Before taking Jacob back to Canaan for the burial, Joseph requested permission for a leave of absence from his employer—the Pharaoh. The burial made for quite a procession, as all of the family and a number of Egyptians (including some of the distinguished elders in the land) made the journey to the Cave of Machpelah.
Let us learn something from the story of Jacob’s death, the care for his body, the weeping, and the burial in the Cave of Machpelah. These are important details, for what people believe always reveals itself in the way they live and die. People will profess to believe certain things, but the way they live will often prove that they believe something else. Eventually, what people believe will be revealed in what they wear, how they educate their children, and how they bury their dead.
While there are a few exceptions in Scripture, the godly usually bury their dead in the ground. Many of the pagan tribes, including the Greeks and Romans, preferred cremation. But Christians bury their dead because they expect imminent resurrection. Throughout Scripture, we find at least eight resurrections (or temporary resuscitations). Then, there is the ultimate resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. As believers in the resurrection of Christ, we fully expect that there will be somebody walking in that body once again, and it may happen tomorrow! About 2,000 years ago, the bodies of the saints, “which were only sleeping,” came out of their graves and appeared to many in the city of Jerusalem (Matt. 27:52). Such records come across as ridiculous to people who, for the last two hundred years, have been told that they are nothing but cosmic dust floating around in a material universe. They don’t believe that anything supernatural could ever happen because they have inculcated a purely naturalistic, materialistic worldview. Of course, this is why we have seen a huge increase in the number of cremations since 1880.
Verses 14–21. With their father gone, Joseph’s brothers were concerned that Joseph might take revenge on them for their wicked treatment of him years earlier. They sent a mediator, and then approached him themselves with their concerns. In true form of the greatest Forgiver of all—our Lord Jesus Christ—Joseph graciously offered his forgiveness to his brothers again.
Even as Joseph forgave his brothers, he refused to take the place of God, the only one to whom vengeance belongs. Whether God forgave them or not was outside of Joseph’s purview, and those brothers still had to personally deal with God against whom they had sinned. At the most basic level, forgiveness is releasing the right to revenge. But within the family and the church, true forgiveness must also include the reconstruction of relationships. This is an ongoing process and it usually takes time. Clearly, Joseph was willing to engage this process of forgiveness by expressing willingness to nourish his brothers and their little ones. Yet, rebuilding relationships is a two-way street, and it is possible that his brothers had not done much to restore the relationship that had been so terribly damaged when they had sold Joseph into slavery.
Joseph also responds in verse 20 with a beautiful formulation of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God:
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”
Did God fully intend for Joseph to be sold to slave traders and journey to Egypt? That is the plain meaning of Joseph’s words here. In all of the actions taken by men, whether by individuals or human governments, Christians must always affirm double causality. That is, there are always at least two wills acting and two hearts engaged in any particular situation. There are also two motivations and two ends in view. The brothers wanted to get rid of their brother once and for all, but God wanted to save His people from the devastation of famine. The hearts of these brothers, overwhelmed by envy and sin, effected an action that enslaved their brother.. But there was another heart acting in this situation. God’s motives played a part in the event in order to bring about something good. Thus, you should see that the problem of evil is answered when we can say that “God has a morally sufficient reason for the evil that exists in the world.” In this case, He glorified Himself by saving His people from a severe famine. You may wonder why God brought a famine to the land, but of course, He had His reasons for this too. In humility, we must acknowledge that God has many reasons for what He purposes, and we are not privy to all of them. We must simply trust that God knows what He is doing.
Here is an Old Testament profession of Romans 8:28: “All things work together for good.” In the final analysis, Christians should be the most hopeful, even as they must slog through the most difficult days of their lives. We may be subject to the most cruel tortures at the hands of men, but we can still receive these trials with hope and optimism, knowing that it is all still under the sovereign purposes of a God who makes all things work together for good.
Verses 22–26. Joseph himself died at 110 years of age. In his final words, he certified his own commitment to the covenant promises of God by requiring that his family promise to bury him in Canaan. In this way, Joseph carried on the heritage of the faith of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He died believing in the promises of God.
1. We honor our loved ones and demonstrate love and appreciation for them when we weep over their death. In the New Testament, we find Jesus weeping over the death of Lazarus, in love for His friend and in sympathy with the others weeping (John 11:35). Yet at the same time, we must be careful not to give want to excessive sorrow. For if we cry too much over a death or other disappointment, we give way to hopelessness, and it may cross over to complaining against God.
2. Does life ever seem as if it is spinning out of control? Suppose that something terrible was to happen to you tomorrow afternoon. What if your mother or father was to die, or suppose that you were hit by a car. Would you be gripped by fear in such a situation, as if everything was spinning out of control? Joseph had a firm sense that God was in absolute control of everything that happened. Everything. It is safe to say that nothing will happen to you today that God does not fully intend to happen. If you love God, you must believe Romans 8:28. “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
1. What are the themes of Chapters 1 through 50?
2. What are the biblical principles regarding the death and burial of a loved one?
3. Why is Joseph one of the best examples in the Bible of one who forgave others?
4. Both Joseph’s brothers and God Himself were involved in the sale of Joseph to the slave traders. How did their heart motivations differ in this act? Did Joseph’s brothers get what they wanted? Did God get what He wanted?
5. Why should we not be afraid when terrible things happen to us?
6. How did Joseph express his faith in God’s promises before he died?
1. How do we handle it when people sin against us? What if they repeatedly sin against us? Do we feel as if we must take vengeance against them? Are we willing to rebuild relationships as Joseph did with his brothers?
2. Do you believe that everything that will happen to you will happen for your good? As this only applies to those who love God, perhaps the more important question is—are you among those who love God and are called according to His purpose?