Genesis 50:1-26

June 4, 2017

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

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The sermon starts at 16:40 in the audio file.

Or, Joseph’s Place in God’s Plan for Israel

We have made it to the final chapter of the First Book of Moses. Genesis 50 covers about 60 years, even though the previous thirteen chapters have only covered about 40. Genesis 50 is also the last word on Israel for about 280 years until Moses is born and Second Book of Moses picks up the story in Exodus 1. It’s taken us 90 previous messages to get here, and there will be one more in the series next Lord’s day as a summary of our study. For this morning there is much to appreciate in these twenty-six verses leading up to The End.

The blessing baton has been passed. Jacob blessed Pharaoh in Genesis 47, then Jacob blessed Joseph through Ephraim and Manasseh in Genesis 48, and then Jacob blessed all his twelve sons in Genesis 49. After gathering his sons around him to give his prophetic testament, Jacob gathered up his feet into his bed and was gathered to his people.

In this chapter Joseph will carry on the family work of blessing. He recognizes that God put him in place to save his family, even though it was the sinful bitterness and rage of his brothers that got him into Egypt. We will see that Joseph fulfills his promise to his father (1-14), he fulfills his promise to his brothers (15-21), and he believes that God will fulfill his promise to Israel (22-26).

His Father’s Death (verses 1-14)

Jacob was concerned about where he was going to be buried. He’s recorded as having talked about it on three different occasions, going so far as to make Joseph swear about it (Genesis 47:29-31) and commanding his sons to it (Genesis 49:29-32). Now Joseph buries his dad in Canaan as he promised he would.

Mourning (verses 1-6)

At least the first verse of chapter 50 could have been included in chapter 49. Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. Jacob had “breathed his last” (Genesis 49:33) and Joseph was there, along with all the other sons, to see it.

Then Joseph takes charge of the arrangements. Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. Embalming was an Egyptian practice, not a Hebrew one. They embalmed their dead to preserve the body and prepare the way for the afterlife. The Hebrews buried without embalming, but Joseph knew that it would be a while before he could carry his father’s body to Canaan. It took forty days to do it, removing the bowels and adding spices and salts and wrapping the corpse with strips of protective material; they were making a mummy. While mummification happened and for another month, the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. This was a national mourning, with all the figurative flags at half-mast, and the time for the mourning approached the time of mourning for a Pharaoh (72 days, whether they liked him or not).

Perhaps because of the unclean nature of mourning, Joseph did not approach Pharaoh directly but he spoke to the household of Pharaoh and asked for permission to fulfill his word to his father. ”If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh saying, My father made me swear, saying, ‘I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.’ Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.” There is no offense in this request. It is his father’s idea, and it involves no insult toward the land of Egypt, it is based on Jacob’s previous preparations in Canaan. Joseph is also not looking to leave. And Pharaoh lets him go.

Burial (verses 7-14)

Joseph does not go alone. Mostly to show honor to Jacob, but perhaps also to discourage Joseph from staying away too long, a very great company goes with them. He went up with all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the[...]