Genesis 49:33- 50:1-13
“And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.... And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.”
It may be said, in a sense, that Jacob’s death was more glorious than his life. His strange career, traced through one hundred and forty-seven years, so often appeared foolish and wayward and he repeatedly reaped the rewards of his folly. But all this was now past, and if he had so often been impatient, he had more fully proved the loving patience of God with himself.
Seventeen years had been enjoyed in the bounty provided by Joseph in Egypt. They were quiet years (the calm after the storm), no longer marked by scheming and promoting advantage to himself although, through Joseph’s position, he might well have advanced his interests in the world had he been the “old Jacob.” Now, by contrast, his foremost desire was to have his body returned to the land of the covenant, the place where he had witnessed the grand vision of the counsel of God. It was as though Jacob found death more important than life in a newly discovered realization of his true relationship with God. Life held him in Egypt, but death would mean restoration to Canaan. His purposes in life had often proved futile, but the prospect of death brought out a sure faith in all that God had promised.
The Apostle Paul was later to say: “To depart, and to be with Christ... is far better.” Philippians 1:3. Jacob’s knowledge of eternal blessing fell short of this, but in Hebrews 11 he is seen as one of those who “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,... were persuaded of them, and embraced them.” The splendors of the greatest kingdom on earth at that time were not to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in the land of Canaan. In spirit Jacob was above and beyond Egypt; he wanted no resting place there. In this he is a lovely picture of the saint of God now whose faith and hope look on to a home “eternal in the heavens.”
A great company escorted Jacob’s body back to Canaan. “And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house... And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.” 10:7-9.
Thus ends the story of Jacob, the one whose behavior was strange and willful but one whom God had chosen as His own — bringing him through needed discipline, but in love preserving him and awarding him a triumphant end to his earthly pathway and a heavenly rest beyond.
“And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying place.” vv. 12,13.
ML 02/25/1968