In his letter to believers in Thessalonica, Paul writes, “I do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13)

These believers believed in a God who had defied and defeated death. While they would still grieve when a loved one died, they would not grieve as those “who have no hope.”

And for us, this is important to remember. It is completely normal, acceptable, and even godly to grieve…but we are not to grieve as those who have no hope—because we have hope…a living hope!

Just like those believers in Thessalonica, we believe in a living God who defied & defeated death by laying down His own life—then taking up His own life again by rising from the dead. We grieve…but we also believe.

So what does grieving and believing have to do with Genesis 50? Quite a bit, since we encounter three different burials that involve both grieving and believing.