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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday June 16, 2019
JACOB’S
DEATH AND BURIAL
Genesis
49:29-50:13
After
Jacob died, Joseph threw himself upon him and kissed him and wept bitterly (Genesis
50:1). Then he instructed his morticians to embalm his father’s body, a process
that, in those days, and by their method, took forty days. In addition, Joseph
called for a seventy day period of national mourning, which was only two days
short of the mourning period reserved for the Pharaohs of Egypt.
When the mourning period was over, Joseph
went to Pharaoh’s advisers and asked them to speak to the Pharaoh on his
behalf. He told them that his father had made him swear to take his body back
to Canaan for burial in his family plot that had been purchased by his
great-grandfather Abraham. He told them to ask Pharaoh for permission to take
his father’s body back immediately.
The Pharaoh granted Joseph’s request and a
great funeral procession was put together which included many of the top
officials in Egypt. The whole family of Jacob, with the exception of the small
children, went back to Canaan for the seven day event, which was held at the
threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan River. After the funeral, the local
Canaanites re-named the place “Abel-mizraim”, which means “Mourning of
Egyptians” because it was a place of very deep mourning for these Egyptians.
JOSEPH
RE-ASSURES HIS BROTHERS
Genesis
50:14-21
After Joseph and those who
accompanied him returned to Egypt from Jacob’s funeral, the residual guilt of
his brothers began to haunt them again. They started to think that now that
their father was dead, Joseph would seek to exact revenge on them for all the
misery they had caused him years earlier. And so they sent Joseph a message
telling him that, before Jacob died, he instructed us to say to you, “Forgive your brothers for the great evil
they did to you, so we, the servants of the GOD of your father, beg you to
forgive us” (v.17) NLT.
When Joseph received their message he began
to weep once more. Then his brothers came in and humbly bowed low before him,
proclaiming, “We are your servants”.
Joseph then re-assured them that they didn’t have to be concerned about him
trying to seek revenge on them. He iterated his feelings that GOD had turned
into good, that which they intended for evil, and that, only GOD, not him, can
ultimately judge them. It is because of what they did to him, that he was
installed into the lofty position of power that he now enjoyed. He told them
not to be afraid, and he spoke very kindly to them.
Through Joseph’s ordeal caused by his
brothers, he had experienced the grace of GOD, and as a result, he was able to
be gracious to his brothers, despite what they had done to him. When we know
and experience GOD’s grace for ourselves, we must not only be able to forgive
others, but we must also be able to do good deeds for those whom we forgive,
whenever we can.
THE
DEATH OF JOSEPH
Genesis
50:22-26
After Jacob’s death, Joseph and his
brothers continued to live in peace, in Egypt, for the remainder of their
lives. And Jacob’s family remained separated from the worldly atmosphere of
Egypt, in Goshen, until after Joseph’s death at the age of 110. Joseph lived to
see three generations of his offspring, the children and grandchildren of
Ephraim and Manasseh, and he treated them as his own. Before he died, he
reminded his brothers, that, “GOD will
surely come for you, to lead you out of this land of Egypt. HE will bring you
back to the land HE vowed to give to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob” (v.24) NLT.
Then Joseph made his brothers swear to take
his bones back to Canaan with them when the LORD comes to lead them back. After
his death, they embalmed his body as they had done with Jacob, and they placed
his body in a coffin, and it remained in Egypt until the great exodus about 300
years later. The Israelites, however, in total, lived in Egypt for 400 years.
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER-
Official Website
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