The Book of GENESIS
James J. Barker

Lesson 50
THE DEATH OF JACOB AND THE DEATH OF JOSEPH

Text: GENESIS 50:1-26

INTRODUCTION:


  1. The death of Jacob is recorded at the end of Genesis chapter 49 (49:33), but his burial is recorded in chapter 50 (50:1-14).
  2. The book of Genesis concludes with the death of Joseph (50:26).
  3. The book of Genesis begins with God creating the heaven and the earth, and it ends with “a coffin in Egypt” (50:26).

  1. THE BURIAL OF JACOB IN CANAAN
  2. THE FEAR OF JACOB’S SONS
  3. THE FINAL DAYS AND DEATH OF JOSEPH
    4.

 

I. THE BURIAL OF JACOB IN CANAAN.

  1. Joseph was with his father Jacob when he died (49:33; 50:1).
  2. “And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him” (50:1). Way back in Genesis 46:4, God promised Jacob, “and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.”
  3. Arrangements were made for embalming Jacob’s body, and Joseph, the devoted son, took care of all of that (50:2).
  4. Because of the dying charge of Jacob (49:29), and in view of the customs of the Egyptians, Jacob’s body was embalmed. This process took forty days (50:3).
  5. Altogether seventy days were devoted to mourning for Jacob (50:3b). Back in those days, the usual time for mourning for a king was seventy-two days, so this indicates the great respect that the Egyptians had for Joseph and his father.
  6. When the days of mourning were over Joseph approached the house of Pharaoh and asked permission to take Jacob’s body up to Canaan in order to fulfil his father’s dying charge (50:4, 5).
  7. Pharaoh at once gave his consent, and Joseph was free to carry out his solemn promise to his father (50:6).
  8. The funeral procession must have been an impressive sight. Traveling with Joseph were all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, besides the members of Jacob’s family (50:7).
  9. Only the small children stayed behind in Egypt (50:8).
  10. “And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company” (50:9). Pharaoh wanted to pay his respects to Jacob, and show his loyalty to Joseph by sending a big cavalcade with Joseph and his brethren.
  11. When they arrived at the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, they remained there seven days, according to the Hebrew time of mourning, and mourned “with a great and very sore lamentation” (50:10).
  12. The Canaanites had never seen a funeral procession with such pomp and ceremony, and they were impressed by the great sorrow and mourning, and they said among themselves, “This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians” (50:11).
  13. Jacob had charged his sons that they should not bury him in Egypt, and Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them (50:12). The oath of Joseph (47:29, 30) was fulfilled, and Jacob was buried in the cave of the field of Machpelah (50:13).
  14. This emphasis on being buried in the land of Canaan indicates the deep impression made by the Abrahamic Covenant.
  15. Genesis 12:1 says, “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee.”  This promise was later given to Isaac, and to Jacob.
  16. Consequently, these promises were cherished by succeeding generations.  Hundreds of years later, Moses said to the children of Israel, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (Deuteronomy 30:19, 20).
  17. The Abrahamic Covenant is eternal and it is unconditional.  And though it is very significant that the Jews have returned to the Promised Land, the full and final fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant awaits the future return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
  18. Eventually it was time for the family of Jacob to go back to Egypt. Perhaps Jacob’s sons wondered why they couldn’t just stay in Canaan.  Why go back to Egypt?
  19. The Bible does not say, but it was not the right time.  Not yet.  God has His own timetable; His perfect schedule.
  20. “And Joseph returned into Egypt…” (50:14), and soon he was busily engaged in his important work and responsibilities in Egypt.
  21. Before we move back to Egypt with Joseph and the others, let me emphasize that here in Genesis 50 special attention is given to the burial of Jacob and to the bones of Joseph.
  22.  Earlier in the book of Genesis, there is great attention given to the burials of Abraham, and Sarah, and Isaac, and Deborah, Rebekah's nurse.
  23. Obviously, burial is very important, and there is no mention of cremation.  In fact, cremation is a heathen practice.

 

II. THE FEAR OF JACOB’S SONS.

  1. After all the years that had passed, including seventeen years living in Egypt, Joseph’s brothers were still uneasy over their sin (50:15).
  2. A guilty conscience can literally drive a person mad. In Shakespeare’s play, Richard III, King Richard says:

“My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.”

  1. Speaking of Joseph’s brothers’ guilt, W.H. Griffith Thomas said, “This sense of guilt after so long a time is very striking. The men were now getting on in years, and yet remained fully conscious of those early sins and were in dread of their consequences…It is a characteristic of weak, base natures to find it difficult to believe in the nobility of others. They measured Joseph by themselves, and thought that he was harboring resentment and only biding his time. What a revelation of their own nature they thus gave! In our suspicions of other people, we often reveal ourselves” (Genesis).
  2. Seventeen years earlier, Joseph had already told them that he was not angry with them (cf. 45:4-8). Apparently, they did not believe him.
  3. They misjudged Joseph, and after the death of Jacob, Joseph’s brothers conceived the idea that he would get even with them all for all the evil they had done to him (50:15).
  4. They sent a “messenger” to Joseph (50:16). Some have speculated that the messenger was Benjamin because Benjamin was not part of their crime. But the Bible does not say who the messenger was.
  5. They appealed to their father’s memory, and then they spoke of themselves as the “servants of the God of thy father” (50:16, 17).
  6. After sending the message, they went to see Joseph, and they fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we be thy servants (50:18).
  7. When Joseph received their message, he wept (50:17). Joseph wept because apparently, his brothers refused to believe him when he told him earlier that they were forgiven.
  8. It was very sad for Joseph to realize that his brothers had so little faith in him.
  9. And it was very sad for Joseph when he realized that his brothers had so little understanding of the providence of God and the sovereignty of God (50:18-21).
  10. Joseph was misunderstood by his brothers, and this was enough to make him weep. Joseph told them not to fear, and he reminded them that he was not in the place of God (50:19).
  11. God deals with sin, as Jacob had recently reminded them on his death bed (cf. 49:3-7).
  12. And so Joseph told his brothers quite plainly that what they had done was “evil,” but that “God meant it for good” (50:20). God overruled evil for good.
  13. This is a wonderful illustration of Romans 8:28 – “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
  14. And then Joseph assured them once again, “Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.” (50:21).

 

III. THE FINAL DAYS AND THE DEATH OF JOSEPH.

  1. The last paragraph of Genesis refers to events fifty-four years after the preceding verse (50:22).
  2. The Word of God does not record many of the details of Joseph’s last days, but we can assume that he kept up his ordinary routine of daily responsibilities and duties.
  3. Joseph remained in Egypt, “and his father's house” (the family of Jacob) also stayed there. Joseph lived to the age of 110 (50:22).
  4. Although Joseph was necessarily engrossed with the demands of his important position in Egypt, we can see from the last few verses of Genesis that his heart was still true to the God of his fathers.
  5. Joseph was allowed by God to see the great-grandchildren of his son Ephraim, and the grandchildren of his son Manasseh (50:23).
  6. When he was being transported as a slave to Egypt, could he have imagined that?
  7. When he was put in the dungeon in Egypt, could he have imagined that?
  8. Joseph was a humble man with a heart for God, and God blessed Joseph like few men have ever been blessed.
  9. Although Joseph was surrounded with everything that was happy, and bright, and joyous in his home, and although he had an immensely successful career in the land of Egypt, he never forgot about God (50:24).
  10. Throughout his long life, Joseph continued to cling to God and he never forgot about the special covenant that God made with his fathers (50:24).
  11. And just as his father Jacob was determined not to be buried in Egypt, Joseph also determined that the final resting place for his bones would not be in Egypt, but would be back in the Promised Land (50:24-26).
  12. Joseph lived to the age of 110, and much could be said about his fascinating life. But in the great “faith chapter” (Hebrews 11), only one thing is mentioned – “By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones” (Hebrews 11:22). Note what God considers very important!
  13. “It was this final and crowning statement of faith that won Joseph his place in God's hall of fame” (Theodore Epp).
  14. The faith which carried Joseph when he was cast into the pit by his brothers, and when he was sold into Egypt as a slave, and when he was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, and when he was put into prison, etc. did not fail him when it came time to die.
  15. Sometimes on Sunday nights we sing,

    16. “Tis the old time religion.”
    It will do when I am dying.
    It will do when I am dying.
    It will do when I am dying.
    And it’s good enough for me.

    ’Tis the old time religion,
    ’Tis the old time religion,
    ’Tis the old time religion,
    And it’s good enough for me.

    It will take us all to heaven.
    It will take us all to heaven.
    It will take us all to heaven.
    And it’s good enough for me.

  16. Joseph’s faith remained strong till the end.
  17. Even though Joseph had spent most of his life in Egypt, he was still the same humble man of God he had always been. Joseph was not affected in the least by his high position, or his great responsibilities, or by the worldliness of Egypt.
  18. To Joseph, God always came first, and everything else was dominated by that simple but all-embracing principle. The Bible teaches that a man can serve God humbly and faithfully in the highest walks of life.
  19. And Joseph and Daniel are two notable examples.

 

CONCLUSION:


  1. John Philipps said that the book of Genesis, “begins with creation and ends with a coffin. It begins with the glory and ends with a grave. It begins with the vastness of eternity and ends with the shortness of time” (Exploring Genesis).
  2. The book of Genesis opens with life, and it ends with death.
  3. In between had come sin, and sin brings forth death.
  4. And yet that coffin in Egypt spoke of life as well as of death. It was a symbol of hope, a message of patience, a guarantee of life everlasting.
  5. Joseph may not have known very much of the future life, but the fact that he made them promise to carry his body is a proof that in some measure he believed in immortality.
  6. And Joseph’s coffin would be a constant reminder to the Israelite of God’s promise to their fathers (50:26). 
  7. Joseph being dead would yet speak, and in the difficult days ahead Joseph’s coffin would remind them of their glorious future.
  8. Joseph’s coffin would inspire them with hope and courage amidst their present difficulties.
  9. When Moses led the children of Israel through the wilderness, he carried the bones of Joseph with him.  Exodus 13:19 says, “And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.”
  10. The book of Joshua ends with the Israelites burying Joseph’s bones in the Promised Land (Joshua 24:32).  

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