Chapter. 27, Genesis 48-50. Jacob’s and Joseph’s death.
ONE day the word came to Joseph, saying: “Thy father is sick.” He took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and went to his father., When Jacob saw him. he sat up in bed and began to talk to him of that gracious God who had been so kind to him; of His wonderful promise to give him the land of Canaan for an inheritance.
Jacob’s eyes had become dim, and when he saw Joseph’s two sons standing by their father, he did not know them, and asked: “Who are these?” Joseph said: “They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place.”
Jacob told them to come to him, that he might bless them. He embraced and kissed them, and put his hands upon their heads, blessing them both, and their father, saying: “God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who fed me all my life long unto this day; the Angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; . . . . and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” “God shall be with you, and bring you again into the land of your fathers.”
Jacob called also his other sons and blessed them, and, by faith, was able to prophesy to each of the things which would happen to them. He told them that through Judah, the One who was to rule the people Israel, the Lord Jesus, would come. Then he commanded them to carry his body, after his death, to the land of Canaan, to the cave of Machpelah and to bury it there, by Abraham and his wife, and Isaac and his wife and his own wife Leah. When Jacob had finished all he wished to say, he lay down again on the bed and died.
Joseph felt the loss of his father very much and wept upon him. All the people mourned for Jacob seventy days. Then Jacob said to King Pharaoh, My father commanded me to carry him to Canaan to his own grave. Let me go now and bury my father and I will come back again. Pharaoh gave him leave, so Joseph and his brothers and their servants went up to Canaan with chariots and horsemen, but their little children and their flocks stayed in Egypt. When they reached Canaan they mourned for Jacob again seven days with great lamentations, so much so that the Canaanites said, when they saw it: “This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians.”
When Jacob’s sons had buried him in the cave of Machpelah, as he had commanded them, and when they had returned to Egypt, Joseph’s brethren began to fear that now their father was gone, the brother, they had so deeply wronged, would requite them, so they sent a messenger to him begging his forgiveness. Joseph wept when he received the message, and they came and knelt before him, saying: “We are thy servants.” But Joseph said: “Fear not; for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now, therefore, fear ye not: I will nourish you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
How like the Lord Jesus this was! When He was on the cross, nailed there by His enemies, He cried: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” And now from the glory where He is, He calls to you, who, by your indifference, by your cold neglect of Him, are crying “Away with Him!” and says, “Come now and let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.” But when His day of grace is at an end, when every place is filled in the mansions He is gone to prepare for His own; then will He say to you if you are not made white in the blood of the Lamb:
“Depart from Me” and “I know you not” “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.” Ps. 95:7-8.
Joseph lived one hundred and ten years, and he saw his grandchildren to the third generation. When he was dying, he said to his brethren; “God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which He sware to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.” And he 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, being one hundred and ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
ML 09/12/1909