January 16

Genesis 50:25‑26
“Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died,... and he was put in a coffin in Egypt”— Genesis 50:25, 2625And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. 26So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. (Genesis 50:25‑26).
“A coffin in Egypt.” These are the words with which the Book of Genesis closes. It leaves Israel as a people developing into a nation, with Joseph their brother and protector now dead. Before his passing, he “gave commandment concerning his bones” (Heb. 11:2222By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. (Hebrews 11:22)). His embalmed body was to remain in an Egyptian sarcophagus until the nation went up out of Goshen to take possession of Canaan, as promised by God to Abraham. When the day of deliverance arrived, they took the bones of Joseph with them (Ex. 13:1919And 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. (Exodus 13:19)). All through the wilderness journey they guarded these sacred remains of their deliverer, until at last they were laid to rest in the land of Promise (Josh. 24:3232And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. (Joshua 24:32)). There is more than a hint here, easily understood by the spiritually-minded, of our present responsibility: “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:1010Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:10)) until we enter the rest that remains eternally for the people of God (Heb. 4:99There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9)).
“O Lord, I want my life to speak on
When I am gone:
May something I have done my days outlive,
Some sacred act of faith its memory weave,
And unto men a lasting blessing give,
When life is done.
Oh, may some word I’ve said, some deed of love,
A comfort prove:
Let something stand a lasting monument—
Approved of God, an holy complement,
That I upon His work was full intent.
Sent from above.”
―R. E. Neighbor.