The first section I’ll summarize as mourning for 77 days over Israel’s passing, and a massive funeral procession. The entire Israelite clan plus “all the servants of Pharaoh” traveled to Canaan, to fulfill Joseph’s promise and bury Israel in his family crypt. (v1-14)
The chapter ends with the death of Joseph, and his final words to his brothers: “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob…. God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” An interesting request he makes of his brothers, wanting his bones to be taken back with them to the Promised Land (Canaan). Despite living the majority of his life in Egypt, Joseph’s heart has always belonged with his people, and so will his remains (spoiler alert: we actually hear about his remains again later when this promise is fulfilled).
Now backing up slightly, here is one of my two favorite moments in the book of Genesis: “When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.’ So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, ‘Your father gave this command before he died: “Say to Joseph, ‘Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.'” And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.’ But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.’ Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.” (v15-17,19-21)
I can’t think of a better way to end today’s reading than with this meditation:
This is an amazing foreshadowing of Jesus – I can just picture myself in a similar scenario as one of the brothers, falling on my face before Jesus, begging forgiveness for the evil I had done to Him. It was my fault he was was crucified on the cross, yet He would kneel down, help me up, look me in the eyes and with warm and comforting words would say “Do not fear. Though you may have sinned against Me, My sacrifice was from the goodness of God, so that you and many others may live. Do not fear, I will look after you and be with you wherever you go.”
~ Conqueror in Training