Scripture
1Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him. 2Then Joseph told the physicians who served him to embalm his father’s body; so Jacob[1] was embalmed. 3The embalming process took the usual forty days. And the Egyptians mourned his death for seventy days.
4When the period of mourning was over, Joseph approached Pharaoh’s advisers and said, “Please do me this favor and speak to Pharaoh on my behalf. 5Tell him that my father made me swear an oath. He said to me, ‘Listen, I am about to die. Take my body back to the land of Canaan, and bury me in the tomb I prepared for myself.’ So please allow me to go and bury my father. After his burial, I will return without delay.”
6Pharaoh agreed to Joseph’s request. “Go and bury your father, as he made you promise,” he said. 7So Joseph went up to bury his father. He was accompanied by all of Pharaoh’s officials, all the senior members of Pharaoh’s household, and all the senior officers of Egypt. 8Joseph also took his entire household and his brothers and their households. But they left their little children and flocks and herds in the land of Goshen. 9A great number of chariots and charioteers accompanied Joseph.
10When they arrived at the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan River, they held a very great and solemn memorial service, with a seven-day period of mourning for Joseph’s father. 11The local residents, the Canaanites, watched them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad. Then they renamed that place (which is near the Jordan) Abel-mizraim,[2] for they said, “This is a place of deep mourning for these Egyptians.”
12So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them. 13They carried his body to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the cave that Abraham had bought as a permanent burial site from Ephron the Hittite.
Joseph Reassures His Brothers
14After burying Jacob, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his father’s burial. 15But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful. “Now Joseph will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him,” they said.
16So they sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he instructed us 17to say to you: ‘Please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you—for their sin in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive our sin.” When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. 18Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.
19But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? 20You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. 21No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.” So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.
The Death of Joseph
22So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph lived to the age of 110. 23He lived to see three generations of descendants of his son Ephraim, and he lived to see the birth of the children of Manasseh’s son Makir, whom he claimed as his own.[3]
24“Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
25Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, “When God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you.” 26So Joseph died at the age of 110. The Egyptians embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Translation notes (3)
- 50:2 Hebrew Israel. See note on 35:21.
- 50:11 Abel-mizraim means “mourning of the Egyptians.”
- 50:23 Hebrew who were born on Joseph’s knees.
But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.”
When it comes to your family or your friend group, are you a planner or follower? I can be both, but most often I am a follower. I love when my family members or friends make plans, and I can join in and help out with whatever fun they have planned. Just because I’m very willing to follow along with the plans my friends and family members make, that does not mean that I do not have an opinion or like to make plans. I like to follow along with the plans that the people closest to me make because I trust them. They have proved themselves trustworthy and capable of planning good things, and therefore I do not stress out. While I willingly trust and follow my family's or friends' plans, I do not always feel the same way when it comes to my faith. You see, while I find it easy to trust my family or my friends when they make plans, but I have a harder time trusting God and His plans. The truth is, however, that He is all-powerful and all-knowing, and that His plans are always for our good and His glory, and faith trusts His plans even when we cannot see.
Joseph’s story took many twists, turns, ups, and downs. It would not be surprising to see someone who went through all he went through become jaded, cynical, and frustrated with God. Joseph did not. In fact, it seems that with each twist and turn that Joseph's faith was strengthened through it all. How was Joseph's spirit so strong and why did he persevere? He tells us why in Genesis 50. In this chapter of Genesis, Joseph’s father had died. His brothers immediately became concerned that he had only been kind, and forgiven them for selling him into slavery because their father was still living. Now that he had died, they worried he would take revenge on them. They sent a message to him, begging for forgiveness. Reading this message, Joseph wept. His brothers came over to him. He looked at them and said, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people” (verses 19-20). This is one of the most profound verses in Scripture. Joseph persevered, forgave, and lived his life above reproach Joseph saw the bigger picture that God is working often in ways we cannot see. He is taking even our worst moments and doing good things despite bad, hard, and difficult situations. In short, Joseph trusted His plan because He knew God's character and trusted Him. As a result, he remained faithful through everything.
Joseph knew he served a faithful God, and as a result, lived faithfully and followed Him. What about you and me? We too serve a faithful God. He is in control. He is all-powerful. He brings good out of all the hard things we face. Will you trust Him today?
Moving Toward Action
Are you having trouble trusting God's plans in a certain area of your life? What is that area? Take some time to think about how God has been trustworthy throughout your life. Make a list of all of these times He's been faithful. Take note of how He has proven Himself faithful throughout your life. How does this faithfulness give you confidence in all areas of your life, especially the area where you are having a hard time trusting Him? Remember, if He has been faithful in the past, He will be faithful in the future as well.
Going Deeper
Read Genesis 50:1-26 (NLT)
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