Introduction

Good morning once again! We have made it to the end of Genesis and what a journey it has been.  We have seen the beauty and joy of creation followed by pain and loss of the fall.  We saw the results of the fall in the murder of Abel and God’s judgment of the world in the flood.  We saw man trying to ascend to the heights of God and God descending to man to call Abraham and promise to save a people through him.  We saw the promise begin to be fulfilled with the birth of Isaac and then through Isaac a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that God will himself provide to cover our sins.  We saw this promise continue with the birth of Jacob and Esau where God displays his sovereignty to show compassion on whom he will show compassion and mercy on whom he will show mercy.  

We saw Jacob fall into sin and deceit and God using even that for his purposes.  We saw Jacob unwillingly marry the unloved daughter of Laban, Leah and then God displaying his tender compassion for the rejected by choosing Leah to be the one through whom the messiah will come.  We saw Jacob wrestle with God and give him a limp as a reminder of his dependence on God.  This was also the time where Jacob was given a new name and a new identity, Israel, which means striving with God. We saw Joseph betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, with Judah taking the lead in this betrayal.  

We then saw Judah humbled through deception and God once again using the sinful actions of sinful people for his purposes.  We saw this even clearer in Joseph as he was falsely accused and thrown in prison only to be elevated to the second highest rank in Egypt on account of God’s blessing and revelation to him.  We saw God’s wisdom in Joseph save an untold amount of people from starvation including his own brothers, his betrayers.  We saw the reconciliation of that family upon the recognition that God was accomplishing his purpose of salvation even through these continued sinful acts.  We saw that nothing was going to stand in the way of God saving his people. We saw the continued promise of God that he was going to preserve his people and again promised them a land and a place that they will one day return.  Finally, as we see the deaths of Jacob and Joseph we are left where we are now, eagerly awaiting the fulfillment of the promise to bring us home.  We of course now have the benefit of seeing the means by which God will bring us home, namely the person and work of Christ, but it is still by that same faith and hope of glory that we await the heavenly kingdom. 

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. 4 Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. Philippians 3: 20-4:1

That is more or less how we will wrap things up this morning, but before we jump into the text I need to give you a short preview of what’s ahead.  As I have said, the next big journey we are walking is the book of Hebrews but we will have a few weeks in between where we will have a few selected sermons before we start down that road.  Brother David is going to deliver a message next week from Romans and we will update the further plan after that.  We will begin Hebrews on October the 13th.  That is all for now so please stand with me once again as we read our passage for today.  

29 Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah— 32 the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.” 33 When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. 

15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. 

24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. 

Jacob’s Blessing

We need to begin this morning by wrapping up Jacob’s life.  We didn’t read this section in Genesis 28 but as Jacob is nearing the end of his life Joseph brings his sons to him to be blessed.  In doing that Joseph places the older Manasseh on Jacob’s right side and the younger Ephraim on his left.  When Jacob reaches out his hands though to bless them he crosses his arms so that his right hand is on the younger Ephraim.  Joseph tries to correct this and actually tries to pick up Jacob’s hands and switch them but Jacob says he knows what he is doing.  

I just find this so interesting especially coming from Joseph who is the youngest of his brothers, save Benjamin, but knows that he was the one who God has used so powerfully to work and save so many.  Further, surely he knows about God choosing his own father, the younger, over Esau but despite that, he is still holding on to the birthright traditions.  It’s like the idea of being owed something because of a tradition, or that birth order constitutes merit is something that is ingrained into us somehow.  So many times now throughout scripture God operates in contradiction to that tradition for the sole purpose of demonstrating that our value and blessing is assigned by God according to his will and has nothing to do with merit.  No one is owed anything in God’s kingdom nor does anyone have the right to claim anything and when someone thinks they do, God always does the opposite to show that such thoughts are foolish.  God does what he does so that everyone knows, or should know, that it is God who does it, not man.  I hope that truth humbles the one who thinks they have earned or are owed something but that isn’t true.  

4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Romans 4: 4-5

So Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons according to the will of God and blesses all his sons according to the will of God.  In particular he blesses Judah with the longest blessing saying that “the scepter shall not depart from Judah”.  The scepter is a symbol of sovereign authority which is Jacob’s way of saying that the royal lineage and authority will run through Judah and we of course know that from Judah came Kings David, Solomon and ultimately Jesus.  So this blessing was obviously ordained by God to show his purposes through the line of Judah.  

The other point to note about Jacob, which is where we started reading this morning, is that he makes his sons promise that they will not bury him in Egypt but that they will take him back to Canaan and lay him with his family, with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah.  There is much that can be said about this command from Jacob but I will note two things.  First, this shows his love of his family and of the land which God gave him that he wants to be buried with them in his home and God’s promised land.  All traditions aren’t bad when there is eternal significance to them and certainly we see tremendous value in Jacob’s desire to be laid to rest with his family.  

This is because of the second point I want to make and that is that such a command clearly demonstrates Jacob’s faith in God that he will bring his people back into the land that he promised.  He trusts that God is going to deliver his people back to that land and when he does he wants to be there with them.  He wants to be resting with his people when God fulfills his promise.  This is an incredible act of faith in which Jacob is saying, I know God is going to bring my people back to this land so I need you to swear to me that you will bury me there so I can be with my people when he does.  

What an incredible long term show of faith and an incredible blessing for his people to bolster their faith that he has that much confidence in God.  Amanda and I talked about this recently as she pointed out that it is for this reason that many churches have historically had their own gravesites.  These are beautiful acts of faith saying I know that our Lord is going to return one day and our people will rest together until he does and will all be raised together in glory.  What a testimony.  Maybe the Lord will bless us with a gravesite.  I would happily be laid to rest with all of you.

Jacob’s Funeral

Next we need to mention the funeral of Jacob.  We skipped over this part in our reading but there was a significant amount of fanfare surrounding Jacob’s funeral.  There was this great company of men, the text says.   Servants of Pharaoh went, the elders of his household, the houses of Joseph and his brothers.  There was a whole caravan of chariots and horses with all the people mourning for days and days as they went.  Even when they crossed over into Canaan, the people there mourned with them.  So what we see here is that the death of Jacob and his funeral brought many gentiles, both Egyptians and Canaanites, into grieving over the loss of one of God’s own.  The man God called Israel.  Gentils mourning over Israel.  

8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 8:8-11

The burial of Israel foreshadows the very thing that Christ himself says will happen yet when Christ says it, Israel (the nation) wants to kill him for it.  This message of salvation by God in Christ is for everyone.  This funeral and those mourners are a foreshadowing of a global people from the east and the west that will all come together and recline at the table, breaking bread in paradise, and it will be not for those who were born in the right place but rather for those who mourn over their sins and trust in the promise of God, Jesus Christ, for their salvation.  At least in my eyes, and I hope you see it too, that this was made so clear in the old testament that this was alway the plan yet so many still miss it.  

We fail to see that the true God is the God of the American and of the Chinese.  The true God is the God of the African tribe, and the Australian down under.  Even more, he is the God of the suburban mom, and the recovering alcoholic.  He is the God of the business man and oilfield worker and the redeemed drug addict along with the one who never strayed from the narrow way. Our God, the true God, doesn’t have a type or a nation.  He is not affected by money or status, these things don’t mean anything to him.  All who come to him he will receive and we can confidently say that all will indeed come to him because God has revealed this to us. 

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelation 7: 5-9

May we see the foreshadowing in Jacob’s funeral and the words of Christ that the one who today may turn our face away may one day be clothed in white, worshiping before the throne of God. Let us then lay aside all prejudices and judgements and pray that God would have mercy on all, from the worst to the best, from the most corrupt to the closest to Christ, all need salvation and in him alone they will find it.  

Joseph Appeals to God

The last major section that we need to cover this morning is what immediately happens after Jacob dies and they bury him in Canaan.  The thoughts of the brothers turn again to the wrongs they have done to Joseph and they fear that now that Jacob is dead Joseph will seek revenge against them.  In hopes of heading that off they tell Joseph that their father told them to tell Joseph to forgive them for their transgressions.  This is almost certainly a lie on their part just to save their skin because it isn’t recorded that Jacob said that to Joseph’s brothers and Jacob had plenty of time to speak with Joseph as he was dying such that if he felt he needed to get that message to Joseph, he would have told him himself.  

In any event, they are scared so they likely lie and tell Joseph, “Hey, our father told us to tell you to forgive us and not try to get back at us.” The reply to Joseph is now the second time he has made such a statement and these words from Joseph are in themselves a foreshadowing of a fundamental component of the gospel.   

19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. 

Joseph sees that the evil that was done against him was ultimately from God for the purpose of saving many people.  In that respect he doesn’t need to exact revenge because he sees the good that God has done through it.  This doesn’t mean that we minimize sin and wrongdoing because we know that God will be gracious through it but rather it means we trust that because God is sovereign over all things, both “good” and “bad”, he will work an ultimate good out of everything that happens to us.  We don’t have to get flustered when we are wronged, or get revenge when we are hurt, or panicked when things don’t go the way we expect.  God is not flustered or met with the unexpected.  He has everything ordered for our good and his purposes are so much higher than we could ever know, just trust that he is caring for us and providing for us, working good in us and for us and will ultimately bring us to himself in glory.  This we can be confident in.  

Conclusion

A few points of application as we close.  I really want to drag this out because it is a little sad to close the book on Genesis but I will do my best to wrap it up.  First, this text teaches us to look far beyond what we can presently see towards the fulfillment of that great promise.  In Hebrews 11, verse 22 it says this.

22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. 

We read that this morning that as Joseph was dying he told them that God will visit them and will deliver them and when he does to take his bones out of Egypt and lay them with his father and family. Joseph is, by faith, looking way out, in this case hundreds of years, and hoping in the promises of God.  His decisions, reactions, and instructions are based not on what he presently sees or with some shortsighted view but are based on what he can not see but hopes in based on the promise of God.  This is the definition of faith right? 

11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

So to walk by faith doesn’t mean we walk by blind hope in something that may or may not happen and we are just hoping it does.  No, this is how the blind define faith and how they think we live.  To walk by faith and to live by faith means that we live based on the assurance of the promises made to us.  We don’t stand on hope as though hope is not grounded on something. The hope of the blind crosses their fingers and hopes things turn out.  The hope of the redeemed lives confidently knowing that all the things unseen will turn out.  We can live assured of this because our hope is grounded in a promise made to us by God and a person who is making sure that all such promises come to pass.  So our call is to live and make decisions not just for today but that when our story is written people may know in our actions and work that we trusted in things far beyond our reach.  We trusted in the promises of God. 

Secondly the text shows us that the timing of these promises always belongs to God.  Joseph looked out to those promises but God waited some 400 years to fulfill them.  I understand how impatient we are at times and the present culture is far from being conducive to the cultivation of patience.  Hear though the words of the Apostle Peter

4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 1 Peter 3: 4-13

His timing is perfect in all things, wait on our God. 

Finally, this text again calls us to hope for restoration and paradise.  We know the rest of Joseph’s story, when Moses took the people out of Egypt they took Joseph’s bones with them as they promised and they kept them through all that journey and wondering until finally, at the end of Joshua’s life they finally made it home. 

32 As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. Joshua 24:32

Joseph was laid to rest in Egypt with the assurance that he would one day make it home and he did.  He is now resting with our Lord and his family with the assurance that he will one day make it fully back to his forever home, the global promised land of God.  This is our hope that is based solely on the promise of God that he will do the same for us as he has done for all those who have come before us.  He will bring us home, all things will be made new, this has to be true because God said it.  The best part is that we don’t have to wait until we are buried here on earth to finally rest in these promises.  The promises are for us now today and they are given to us so that we may hope and joy now.  

How would you live today if you knew that everything was going to work out perfectly for you? Have you ever been nervous about something and then when it worked out thought, “man, what was I all worked up about?” Easier said than done I know, but the reality is that according to the blessed promises of God everything is going to work out alright.  Let the peace and joy of that fact wash over you this morning and live abundantly.  Walk by faith being assured that our God has promised you eternal glory in paradise, he will surely get you there.  Amen.