Read with Me
Genesis 50:1-9 (HCSB)
Then Joseph, leaning over his father’s face, wept and kissed him. He commanded his servants who were physicians to embalm his father. So they embalmed Israel. They took 40 days to complete this, for embalming takes that long, and the Egyptians mourned for him 70 days.
When the days of mourning were over, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s household, “If I have found favor with you, please tell Pharaoh that my father made me take an oath, saying, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me there in the tomb that I made for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father. Then I will return.”
So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father in keeping with your oath.”
Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all Pharaoh’s servants, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt went with him, along with all Joseph’s household, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their sheep, and their cattle were left in the land of Goshen. Horses and chariots went up with him; it was a very impressive procession.
Listen with Me
Embalming was a long and expensive process, usually reserved for the nobility of Egypt. But Joseph was Egyptian nobility, even though he was a foreign blood. So, he was able to command embalming for his father, and he had the resources to pay for it. This embalming was also essential to enable Jacob’s body to be transported to Canaan without falling apart due to continued decay.
In honor of Joseph’s position, a national period of mourning was decreed by the Pharaoh lasting 70 days. This was a huge honor for a foreign-born person.
As a court official, Joseph’s actions were accountable to the Pharaoh. So, in order to leave the country, he had to have his permission. This was immediately granted. The death of one’s father in Egypt was recognized as a monumental event that required accommodation.
The listing of people who went to Canaan is very impressive, especially in view of the distance they had to cover (around 200 miles as the crow flies). It included not only Joseph’s brothers and Jacob’s remaining concubines, but also an escort of Egyptian charioteers to provide security for the slow-moving entourage. The overarching solemnity of this account clearly communicates the honor that was shown to this great patriarch, as well as the honor in which Joseph was held in Egypt.
Pray with Me
Father, Jacob had lived a difficult life in many respects, and he was the shortest-lived among the three great patriarchs due to the griefs and challenges that he experienced. He was not a saint as we usually define that word, having many faults and making many missteps along the way. But he was unabashedly Your man inasmuch as he knew You and Your will, and You continued to work in and through him his whole life. Though his lifestyle is not a model for us, his growing commitment and devotion to You is. Help me, Lord, to lean toward You and to rely on You with the same intensity shown by Jacob. Amen.