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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.”
When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.
Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him. Then Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So the physicians embalmed him, taking a full forty days, for that was the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s court, “If I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him, ‘My father made me swear an oath and said, “I am about to die; bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now 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 to do.”
So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh’s officials accompanied him—the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt—besides all the members of Joseph’s household and his brothers and those belonging to his father’s household. Only their children and their flocks and herds were left in Goshen. Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very large company.
When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they lamented loudly and bitterly; and there Joseph observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father. When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning.” That is why that place near the Jordan is called Abel Mizraim.
So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them: They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.
Genesis 49:29-33, 50:1-14
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Would you ever think that an Arab nation, one who had a well established polytheistic religious system, could appoint a Hebrew, one with strict monotheistic beliefs, as the second in command? Further, would that nation’s leader and its people then allow a contingent of Hebrews to actually move into and settle in, then provide full burial honors when the senior member of the Hebrew family passes away?
It’s almost completely unthinkable in today’s current world climate but as we see in the latter chapters of the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis, God truly makes all things possible.
To recap, you will remember how Joseph, the favored son of Jacob, lived in Canaan with his father, eleven brothers, and a sister. Out of jealousy, his brothers first wanted to kill him but decided against it, selling him into slavery instead. Joseph ended up being sold to an Egyptian named Potiphar, Pharaoh’s captain of the guard (37:36).
As Joseph served, God richly blessed Potiphar and as a result, he put his new servant in charge of the entire household, entrusting Joseph with everything he owned (39:1-6). Everything was going great until Potiphar’s wife tried to get Joseph to sleep with her, a request he rejected. With no one else in the house, we saw where she tried one more time to get Joseph to have sex with her, grabbing him by his cloak and as he fled, the cloak remained with her. She went onto falsely accuse Joseph of sexually assaulting her, a lie that her husband believed, putting Joseph in prison (39:6-20).
Now, while that might not have seemed to be a good thing, it all played out according to God’s plan. For the scriptures tell us that Joseph was blessed by God with the warden putting him in charge of all the prisoners, a position that allowed him to reveal a special gift that would eventually get him from the depths of incarceration to the heights of leadership over the Egyptian nation (39:21-23).
The catalyst for Joseph’s ascension came when two Egyptian servants of Pharaoh, a cupbearer and a baker, get into trouble and are imprisoned. While there, each man has a dream which Joseph, through God, interprets and as both men are restored, events unfold just as Joseph said they would. You’ll remember that the cupbearer was put back into his position but the baker was executed. You may also recall that the cupbearer promised to put a good word in with Pharaoh so to get Joseph released but he forgot (chapter 40).
Joseph would spend another two years in prison but then Pharaoh himself has two dreams and no one on his staff could tell him what they meant. It was then that the cupbearer remembered Joseph who was brought out of incarceration to deliver an interpretation, attributing it to God (41:1-16).
After hearing Pharaoh discuss the particulars of each dream, Joseph goes on to tell the Egyptian leader that they meant the same thing. For Egypt and the nations surrounding it would experience seven years of abundant harvesting that would be followed by seven years of severe famine (41:17-32).
Joseph then advises Pharaoh to choose a man who would be “discerning and wise” to oversee the next 14 years, offering specific guidance as to how the matter should be handled. This involved storing up a surplus of grain during the seven abundant years so to have adequate food to survive the seven years of famine that would follow. Hearing all this from Joseph, Pharaoh feels that no other man would be more suitable to carry out the plan than the one who provided it, the one who had the very spirit of God with him (41:33-40).
And with that, Joseph was put in a position where he was second in command of all of Egypt (41:41-46). He carried out the plan perfectly, stockpiling grain during the seven years of plenty and then selling grain to the Egyptians and other nations afterwards when the famine came (41:47-57).
It was during the difficult seven year famine that the scriptures took us back to Canaan where Joseph’s family was running out of food. This triggered Jacob sending his sons to Egypt to but grain, all of them completely unaware that they would be dealing with Joseph. We then find a lot of different encounters occurring between Joseph and his brothers before he reveals his identity to them. This leads to him inviting them, with Pharaoh’s blessings, to move to Egypt and settle in there where they could be provided for (chapters 42 through 47:12).
Jacob would go onto live in Egypt for seventeen years before reaching the point of dying. You’ll remember that he (Jacob) made Joseph swear a vow to make sure he was not buried in Egypt but in the place where his fathers were laid to rest in Canaan (47:28-31). As we see in our passage for today, Joseph made good on the promise he made to his father.
For after Jacob (also named Israel by God) dies, we find him buried “in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan”, the site that “Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite”. It was there that Abraham and his wife Sarah, Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and Jacob’s wife Leah were all laid to rest.
What was really impressive about what happened after Jacob’s passing was how the Egyptians provided such loving service, despite him being a Hebrew. We read where they first offered embalming services through their physicians and overall the entire nation “mourned for him seventy days”. That’s more than two months if you do the math. Simply incredible and a beautiful display of respect for someone who wasn’t even an Egyptian citizen.
Then, Pharaoh completely honored Jacob’s request to be buried in Canaan without reservation. But he didn’t just stop there for the scriptures tell us that “all Pharaoh’s officials accompanied” Joseph and his family, “the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt”. This Egyptian representation included “chariots and horsemen”, and was nothing short of a “very large company”.
Before the final burial, we read where there was a “seven day period of mourning” that occurred at “the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan” and the period was observed by the Hebrews and Egyptians alike
And with that, Jacob was carried “to the land of Canaan” and buried “in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite”. Afterwards, the scriptures tell us that “Joseph returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him”.
Indeed, this was the end of an important era in Hebrew and Egyptian history, one that showed that there can be peaceful cooperation and integration between two nations and people who on the surface appear to be diametrically opposed. If God could do in it Old Testament times, none of us should fail to believe He could do it again. Let this be our prayer over the current Middle Eastern world environment where we still find Arabs and Hebrews living in proximity to one another.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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