Genesis

FEW of the deaths recorded in Scripture are more beautiful in their simplicity than that of Jacob. His departure from earth was not only the quiet, peaceful close of a chequered life; it also signalized the close of a very definite stage in the development of the Divine purpose concerning his seed.

The words of Jacob concerning his twelve sons and their future came to a close with the reference to Benjamin, and as the end of the patriarch s life was at hand, he gave his sons his final Benediction: "Everyone according to his blessing he blessed them. Not one was overlooked, even though he had had to speak so faithfully about the temporal results of the sin of some of them. Each one was blessed with his own special blessing, and a legacy of benediction was left to them all. The retrospect, as he went over name after name, must have been as sad to him as it was to his sons; but at length all this was over, and only the Divine benediction was in the mind of their father. His affection for them was unshaken by anything that he had said, and he called down upon them each and all the blessing of the Lord his God.

With the blessing came a solemn charge. His mind was full of the promise made to Abraham and Isaac, and what he had said to Joseph (Gen 47) he pressed upon them all, charging them to bury him in Canaan in the field that Abraham purchased as a burying-place. Egypt was no place for him; and although the fulfilment of God’s promises was not to be realized during his life-time, he had no sort of doubt that a fulfilment would take place, and for this reason he wished to be buried in the Land of Promise. We can well believe, although it is not actually recorded, that his sons were just as ready as Joseph had shown himself to do according to their FATHER’S will.

At length everything was accomplished. The last counsel had been given, the last blessing bestowed, the last charge laid upon his sons, and then the aged patriarch yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. In these two phrases we have a simple but very significant idea of what death meant to the patriarch. To God he yielded up his spirit, and with his people he was reunited. A careful study of the various references to the close of life in Genesis reveals more about the early ideas of death than we are accustomed to credit to the patriarchs.

The loss to Joseph was necessarily great. He had lived, we may almost say, for his father, and as we review all the circumstances from the earliest days of his life we fully realize the closeness between them. Joseph fell upon his FATHER’S face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. It is, perhaps, worth while observing that during those years of stress and hardship, with cruelty, disappointment and misunderstanding as his portion, we do not read of Joseph giving way to tears. We read of his tender feelings when he met his brothers after the lapse of years; but, so far as personal sorrow is concerned, this seems to be the record of his feelings. There was nothing unmanly in these tears as he gazed upon the beloved form of the father who had been as devoted to him as he had been to his father. Henceforth life could not but be very different for Joseph. A blank had been made which could never be filled, and we cannot wonder at his sorrow.

In view of Egyptian custom, and also because of the dying charge of Jacob, the body was embalmed. Embalming was something of a testimony to a belief in the resurrection. It was believed that the soul would in time return to its body after death, and pains were therefore taken to preserve the body from dissolution in the grave (Driver, Genesis, p. 395). It is true that the idea was associated with metempsychosis, but even so it is one of those broken lights which bear their witness to the full Biblical truth of resurrection.

Seventy days altogether were devoted to mourning for Jacob; and as the usual time for mourning for a king was seventy-two days, we can readily see the respect that was shown to Joseph in this almost royal mourning for his father.

When the days of mourning were over Joseph approached Pharaoh through members of the royal household, asking permission to take the body of his father up to Canaan in order to fulfill the patriarch’s dying charge. It is not quite clear why he did not go direct to Pharaoh. Probably it was because he was still in the habiliments of mourning with hair and beard uncut, or it may have been that he wished to associate himself for the moment with his brethren as the head of the family, rather than approach Pharaoh in his position as Prime Minister of Egypt. Pharaoh at once gave consent, and Joseph was free to carry out his solemn promise to his father.

The funeral cortege must have been a striking sight, for with Joseph went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, besides the members of Jacob’s family. Pharaoh clearly desired to pay the highest possible tokens of respect to Jacob in sending such a cavalcade with Joseph and his brethren.

When they arrived at the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, they remained seven days, mourning according to the Hebrew time of mourning, and mourned with a great and very sore lamentation. Even the Canaanites were impressed by this great sorrow and regarded it as of special import (Gen 50:11). Then his sons did unto him according as he commanded them. The oath of Joseph (Gen 47:29-30) was fulfilled, and Jacob was buried in the cave of the field of Machpelah. Just as Abraham had charged his servant not to obtain a wife for Isaac in the land of Canaan (Gen 24:2), so Jacob had charged his sons that they should not bury him out of the land of Canaan. This emphasis on Canaan shows beyond all question the deep impression made by the Divine promises, and the way in which those promises were cherished by succeeding generations.

Then came the sad return to Egypt. Joseph and his brethren and all that went up with him turned their faces from the Land of Promise to go back to the land of their adoption. We may perhaps imagine their questioning among themselves why they were not to stay in Canaan; why, after God’s promise, they were not to abide in the land that had been assured to them. But the time was not yet. There was much to be accomplished before they would be ready for the land or the land ready for them. We may also think of them turning round as they finally left Canaan, to take a last look at some familiar scenes, perhaps with the thought that it was the last time they would ever have the opportunity of seeing the Land of Promise. Soon Joseph was engaged once more in his ordinary occupation in Egypt, with all its responsibilities; and though his father would never be forgotten, yet time and work would, as always, lay their healing balm upon his heart and life.

Leaving for further and fuller consideration the story of Jacob’s life as a whole, it may be worth while looking at this story as revealing to us some of the aspects of a believer s death. Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his. What marks the death of the righteous as suggested by the close of Jacob’s life?

We observe Jacob’s mind and heart occupied with God, His promises, and His grace. The blessing that he bestowed upon his sons showed that he was concerned with very much more than temporal blessings. By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. Happy, thrice happy, is that deathbed where God is a reality, and where faith in God is the strength and support of the passing soul.

Death is the great reconciler. There had been many a difficulty, many a conflict, many a sorrow in the relations of Jacob and his sons; and even on his deathbed it was essential that the patriarch, with prophetic insight and foresight, should speak quite plainly of some of the past events in their connection with the future. But even this did not affect his personal feeling for them, for he blessed them every one; and as they gathered round his deathbed the spirit of love possessed him, and as we may believe possessed them all. Happy, thrice happy, is that deathbed where all alienations are at an end, and everything is peace and love.

The emphasis placed several times upon being gathered unto his people clearly shows that Jacob fully expected to be reunited with his loved ones. It is impossible to interpret a phrase like this to mean nothing more than being buried with them. It must mean that he looked forward to reunion and recognition as he and they were gathered together once again. This thought of a reunion thus hinted at, and more than hinted at, in the early pages of the Old Testament becomes fuller and clearer in the course of Divine revelation, until at length in the full revelation of the New Covenant it becomes one of the inspirations of life.

Jacob while on his deathbed not only looked up to a present God of g race and blessing; he looked forward also to a time when the promises of God to his forefathers would be fulfilled. The intense concern about being buried in Canaan was associated with the fulfilment of those promises. That cave in the field of Machpelah, with the precious bodies of his loved ones, was as it were an outpost, a guarantee, and a pledge of the complete fulfilment of God’s promises. Like Abraham and Isaac before him, Jacob looked for a city which had foundations whose maker and builder was God. The fathers did not look only for transitory promises, for they were occupied with the thought of Resurrection. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. All this is a thousand-fold clearer and more certain to-day. The Christian is inspired with the hope of the Resurrection. It is this that fills the horizon with light and joy. The sky, not the grave, is our goal, and this hope of Resurrection transforms and transfigures death, and enables us to realize that it is only the gateway to the fuller life which is ours in Christ.

This is true dying. If God should call us through death to be with Him, happy will it be if we have the same faith, the same love, the same hope, the same expectation, for then will the words find their very literal fulfilment: Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.