Unchanging and Everlasting Love: Genesis 49:24-50:19

Genesis 49:24‑50:19  •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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Those wonderful words, spoken to Joseph, refer to the Lord Jesus, “From thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.” He is both the Good Shepherd (John 10:11) and the Corner Stone of God’s building (Ephesians 2:20). If you are unsaved, dear reader, you are like a lost sheep in the wilderness, and the Good Shepherd is seeking you. Do not run away from Him any longer, but let Him save you and put you on His mighty shoulders now. He will carry you all the way home, and you will be able to say like David of old, “The Lord is my Shepherd” (Psalm 23:1). Then, too, you need a solid foundation on which to build, and the Lord Jesus is the Living Stone (1 Peter 2:4). Do not build on anything of your own doings, for if you do, it will all tumble in the storm which is soon going to break upon this dark world. How much better to be able to say, “On Christ the solid Rock I stand.”
The Promised Blessing
The promised blessing was to go to “the utmost bound of the everlasting hills,” and this looks on to the time when Christ will reign over this whole world. The blessings of His kingdom will extend beyond the land of Israel (where it will be in its fullness) to the ends of the earth. This is what we com­monly call the millennium.
After blessing his twelve sons Jacob died. Joseph mourned and wept for a long time. He did not know, as we do now, that death for the believer is to be “absent from the body, present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). This was a special revelation given to Paul, and now we do not sorrow as Joseph did. We know that the sting of death is gone through the work of Christ, and that our loved ones, who have died in Christ, are with Him which is far better. (Philippians 1:23) They wait for His coming up there while we wait here, and then we, with all the Old Testament saints, will receive bodies of glory just like Christ’s.
As soon as Joseph’s father had died, Joseph had the Egyptians embalm his body. Then he, with a great company of others, took it up to the land of Canaan for burial as his father had requested.
Fear Not
Joseph’s brothers were afraid as soon as their father had died, for they thought perhaps Joseph had only been kind to them for his father’s sake, and that now he would punish them for their naughtiness. They decided to go to him, therefore, and tell him that their father had requested, before he died, that Joseph forgive them for all they had done to him. This made Joseph feel very badly, and he cried while they were speaking to him. How little they knew of his love toward them, and yet how keenly he felt it when they doubted it. This can be a lesson to us, dear young believers, for we should never doubt the Lord’s love to us, because it never changes. It is an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3), unaltered by all our failures and short-comings. Of course if we go on in sinful ways, we will not enjoy His love to us, but the moment we confess our sins we will receive, as Joseph’s brothers did, fresh assurances of His ever-continuing love and care. Joseph said, “Fear not!” Those oft-repeated words are always sweet to our souls. Our sins might well make us fear, if we did not know the grace which has abounded over them all and brought us into favor in the Beloved, through the work of Calvary (Ephesians 1:6).
Further Meditation
1. Why were Joseph’s brothers afraid after their father died?
2. Do you have any idea how many times the Lord chose to repeat those wonderful words “Fear not”? Take a concordance and prepare to be encouraged.
3. If you haven’t read it yet, you’d really be encouraged by the pamphlet Fear Not by H. H. Snell. It’s brief and well worth your time.