Grief is part of life. Virtually every single person to ever live will have to carry the burden of grief at some point in their lives. It is one of the heaviest burdens we carry. Even when we know the promises of God, death still stings. In this passage, we see Joseph and his brothers walk through the burden of losing their father. We see their grief. But we are also reminded even in their grief that Jacob died in faith. That’s encouraging. Let’s take a look.
Genesis 50:1–14 (ESV)
Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
All of a sudden the focus turns back to Joseph, the powerful Joseph, the powerful regent of Egypt. But even he, powerful as he is, is still a son. He does something so human. He throws himself on his father’s face and cries. Remember in the passage just before this one, we reflected on the fact that Jacob died in faith. He died clinging to God’s promises in the Covenant. But if you have ever been to a Christian funeral, you know that even when a person has faith as they die, that faith does not take away the tears we cry when they die. Interestingly even Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Grief, even in faith, is a real and truly human thing. We should also notice that the fact that the Egyptians gave Jacob a full embalming treatment, along with seventy days of mourning. This shows us just how highly Jacob was honoured. Remember shepherds were despised in Egypt, but here Egypt gives time to Joseph to mourn this old shepherd.
And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ‘My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me. Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’” And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.”
We need to read this passage in the context of Jesus’ own words. Remember when Jesus calls people to follow him (Luke 9:60 and Matthew 8:22) one of the people responds to Jesus saying “Lord, first let me go bury my father” and Jesus responds “Let the dead bury their own dead, you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God”. In both cases a father needs to be buried, but in the case of Gospels, the burial of the father take people away from faithfully proclaiming the kingdom. In the case of Jacob, burying his father in the land of promise take people toward the promised kingdom of God. Even the might of Egypt cannot stand in the way of God’s kingdom purposes.
So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company.
This would have been a magnificent funeral procession. It would have been enormous. It would be of the scale of a monarch dying today. There were Egyptian chariots and horsemen, the elders of Pharaoh’s court, Joseph’s brothers, and the elders of Jacob’s family, all traveling together to bury Israel. The whole world seems to stop and take notice. This was a picture of a nation’s leader being buried. For that is exactly what was happening. Israel the man, is honoured as Israel the nation. Again God’s promises are coming to fruition.
When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan.
Even the Canaanites take notice. They see the Egyptians mourning and name the place Abel-mizraim—“the mourning of Egypt.” Jacob’s death leaves a mark, not just on his family but on the nations. And this is exactly what God promised Abraham. That through his family, the nations would be blessed. Again even in death, we see this Covenant promise.
Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
The story comes full circle. Jacob is buried with Abraham and Isaac, in the land of promise. His sons honor his faith. Then Joseph and the company return to Egypt, for the story is not yet finished. Israel the man is in the promised land. Israel the nation returns back to the land where they would be enslaved.
But isn’t that just how the Christian life works. There is this tension we must all learn to live with. We bury our loved ones, we cry, we attend the funeral, we say goodbye, and then we return to the daily grind. We have to, because the world is not yet made perfect. But it will be. We hold to the promise of our resurrection because of Jesus. Like Jacob, our bodies will one day rest in the ground. But also one day, Jesus will call us out of the grave and bring us into the true promised land. What a thing to look forward to!
Prayer
Father, we thank You that in Jesus we do not grieve as those without hope. We still weep, as Joseph wept, but our tears are filled with faith. Thank You that You gather Your people in life and in death, and that You will one day raise us up to live with You forever. Strengthen us when we grieve, and fix our eyes on Jesus, the resurrection and the life. In His name we pray, Amen.