SOVEREIGN GRACE GUARANTEES A GOOD DEATH

Genesis 49: 29—50: 14

INTRODUCTION

Eugene Peterson, one of my favorite authors who was the pastor of the same church for 29 years and now is professor of “Spiritual Formation” at Regent College, writes this about the world we live in, “The sheer quantity of wreckage around us is appalling: wrecked bodies, wrecked marriages, wrecked careers, wrecked plans, wrecked families, wrecked alliances, wrecked friendships, wrecked prosperity. We avert our eyes. We try not to dwell on it. We whistle in the dark. We wake up in the morning hoping for health and love, justice and success, we build quick mental and emotional defenses against the inrush of bad news, and we try to keep our hopes up. And then some kind of crash or other puts us or someone we care about in a pile of wreckage. Newspapers document the ruins with photographs and headlines. Our own hearts and journals fill in the details. Are there any promises, any hopes that are exempt from the general carnage? It doesn’t seem so.”

The book of Genesis is a record of the wreckage of humanity and of the God who rules over it and in it and through it to accomplish his salvation. Human evil and human suffering are revealed in all its gruesome detail. Yet, in it all we see the hand of a great and gracious God working to rescue human beings out of the morass of sin and misery that we have brought into the world. The point of Genesis is that in spite of and sometimes through the foolish and evil acts of human beings, God is working out a great salvation. Today, as we enter the second to last scene recorded in the book of Genesis we are given a detailed account of the death, mourning and burial of Jacob the father of the twelve sons who become the twelve tribes of the nation Israel.

Why are we given so much detail about the death of this man? If you compare the record of the deaths of the other great men and women of Genesis you will discover that this account is hundreds of times longer. The account of Jacob’s death lasts over 2 1/3 chapters whereas the record of the other deaths are no more than a few verses. The burial of Jacob alone takes up over 14 verses as compared to one for Abraham and one for Isaac. Why does Moses give so much space to Jacob’s death? First we must remember that Moses wrote this book for the nation Israel while traveling in the wilderness, waiting for all those who were twenty years old and more to die for their rebellion against God at Kadesh Barnea. The first hearers of this story were living in the midst of massive human wreckage, waiting for God to fulfill his promise to take them into the Promised Land. Second, we must remember all that Jacob has said and all that surrounds him at his death is said and done knowing that his descendants are going to live in slavery for 400 years in Egypt before they will be rescued. Third, we must remember that God wrote this account of Jacob’s death for the benefit of all God’s people down through the centuries. All of us live in the midst of human wreckage, waiting for God to fulfill his promises.

Jacob, more than any other person in the book of Genesis has lived through the wreckage of human sin. Here is a man who from the moment of his birth was subjected to the conflict and suffering brought on by human sinfulness. He brings misery to others, mainly his own family and is himself made miserable by others, mainly his own family. If God is able to bring a man like Jacob to such a hope filled and honorable death as this, then he is able to rescue anyone out of whatever trouble he may find himself. This death teaches us that the gospel of Jesus Christ guarantees us a good death so that we will live God-glorifying lives now. Jacob’s death is designed to help us live well by showing us how God graciously enables us to die well. The main point of Jacob’s good death is to emphasize what the Bible everywhere says, the only people who are able to live good, God-glorifying lives are those who are prepared by God to die in a God-glorifying manner. We see in the account of Jacob’s death and burial the way in which those who die well, live well.

MAIN POINT

God guarantees us a good death so that we will live a glorifying life by…

I. Remembering the promises (vv. 29-33)

Verses 29-30 are the last recorded words of Jacob to his twelve sons and two adopted grandsons. After completing his prophetic blessings that described what would happen to his sons in the “days to come” he commands his sons to make sure that he is buried in the cave that Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite some 170 years earlier. Abraham bought the cave and the field that contained it from Ephron in order to bury his wife Sarah. Jacob gives to his sons a very detailed description of where the tomb is, how it was obtained and who is currently buried there. None of this is new information to these sons. They do not need instructions on to how to get there, as the gravesite of their grandparents, great-grandparents and the mother of six of these sons is well known to them.

Jacob gives such an extensive description for several reasons. First, he is full of eager anticipation at being “gathered to his people”. As I pointed out back in April when I spoke about Jacob’s making Joseph promise to bury him in Canaan, the language of “being gathered to his people” is not simply a desire to be buried in the same place as his relatives. It is a declaration that he knows that he is going to join Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah and Leah in a living fellowship with God himself. He knows that God is not the God of the dead but of the living. The physical land of Canaan is a symbol of the ultimate location of God’s holy people, the new heavens and the new earth, which is the inheritance that God will give to all of his people at the last day. When v. 33 ends with, “he…breathed his last and was gathered to his people,” it is not simply saying in a poetic way that he died. It means he really was gathered into the conscious fellowship of all those who died in faith before him. Jacob joined Abraham and Isaac in the eternal, spiritual worship of God while waiting for the final resurrection of their bodies.

Second, he emphasizes that the land and the cave where he is to be buried is his legal possession as the heir of Abraham who bought it from the Hittites. This small piece of the land of Canaan is a “down payment” of the full inheritance that will come into the possession of his descendants. His desire to be buried there with his forefathers is evidence of his absolute confidence that what God has begun in giving this small portion of Canaan to his nomadic people, he will complete by giving the entire land of Canaan to his descendants in the future. He is not only anticipating his dwelling with those who have gone before him but also his dwelling with those who will follow him in trusting God. God’s promise connects him to God’s people through all generations.

Finally, he gives such an extensive description because he wants to build the faith of his sons. He wants them to see how this cave and field that belongs to them points ahead to the much greater fulfillment that will one day be theirs. He wants these sons to travel to Canaan and to bury him with their forefathers so that they will remember that Canaan is their home, not Egypt. The presence of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob buried in the cave at Macphelah will be a continual reminder of God’s promises and an inducement to the nation Israel while living in the suffering of slavery that God is going to fulfill his promises to them. The detailed description shows that Jacob has meditated long on the significance of God’s promises and how God has been fulfilling those promises in degrees for his people. The cave is one of those tokens of his faithfulness to his promises.

The portrait of Jacob in chapters 48 & 49 is that of a man of faith. He has learned through the hard years of his life and through his own sinfulness that God is faithful to his word. He has spent much time thinking about the promises that God has made and is convinced that his word is true. We have these promises made more sure through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our confidence does not rest in a tomb filled with the bones of dead people but in an empty tomb. If you are going to have a good death and live a good life you must meditate upon these great and precious promises through which we have obtained life and a future. We must give attention to the Scriptures and to the many evidences of God’s faithfulness that are there. We must pay heed to the ways in which he gives advance tokens of his faithfulness in our lives by providing for us now. Jacob came to live a life of faith and so came to a good end because his mind and heart were fixed upon the promises of God.

God guarantees us a good death so that we will live a good life by…

•  Remembering the promises

•  And by…

II. Regretting that we are not yet home (vv. 1-3)

When his father dies, Joseph the powerful prince of Egypt falls upon him in front of his brothers, weeping. He kisses the still warm but lifeless cheeks of his father and mourns. We are not told how the other brothers respond at this moment. We are only told that Joseph, Jacob’s beloved son, the eldest son of his beloved Rachel, the heir of the rights of the firstborn, weeps for his father. We know that of all Jacob’s sons, Joseph is the one who has lived by faith his whole life long. Therefore, we can be confident that his weeping is not an expression of unbelief. He is not grieving like those who have no hope. He is doing what Peter says in his first letter is true of every Christian. Peter says this, “in this great salvation you rejoice though now for a little while you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” As you have heard me say before and I will never tire of saying, the Christian life is a life of joyous grief or grieving joy. Our joy is found in the anticipation of that coming salvation. Our grief is due to the fact that it is not yet here in fullness but rather we must endure trials of various kinds.

There are different kinds of grief’s that are legitimate for the child of God to experience. Joseph expresses one of those griefs here. He grieves over the loss of his father. He grieves over another parting for he knows not how long. He grieves at the loss of the presence of his dad. If Joseph had not grieved the loss of his father we could only assume that he did not love him. Lack of grief is not evidence of great faith but rather evidence of a cold heart. In I Thessalonians, the apostle Paul tells us that he wants us to know about the resurrection of Christians who have died so that we will not grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. It is possible to grieve too much, to grieve as a person who does not have faith. However, it is not possible to have so much faith that you do not grieve. The problem we have when we grieve is to determine when grief has gone beyond the bounds of faith.

We have examples in the Scriptures of the suffering children of God who complained to God in strong language in the midst of their grief but whom we are told, did not sin in so doing. There are examples in the Psalms of men of faith calling out to the Lord, “How long must I endure this suffering before you deliver me?” Paul himself asked the Lord three times to take away physical suffering from him and was not condemned though God did refuse to remove the suffering from Paul. On the other hand, we have the examples of others who questioned God and put God to the test in the midst of their grief and for which God condemned them and often judged them. The nation Israel often quarreled with God in the desert when things were not going as they wished and God rebuked them. He struck down thousands of Israelites on several different occasions for their grumbling against him and his dealings with them.

There is also a mourning that is actually commanded and commended in the Scriptures. Jesus said in Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” Paul in 2 Corinthians 7 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves not regrets.” Finally, James commands in his letter, “Grieve, mourn and wail, turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.” The mourning that God commends is the mourning over our own sin and over the misery of the world due to sin. Things are not the way they should be in the world or in our lives. We grieve over our sinful hearts that persistently seek their joy in things other than God. We grieve that we cannot love others as we should but rather demand that others love us. We grieve over accidents, disease, and death, as these are intruders in God’s good world. Yet, our grieving is laced with joy (or our joy is laced with grief) as we anticipate the elimination of our sin and of the misery of sin when the Lord Jesus returns.

God guarantees us a good death so that we will live a good life by…

•  Remembering the promises

•  Regretting that we are not yet home

•  And by…

III. Rejoicing in the victory of Christ (vv. 4-11)

Verses two through eleven record the elaborate and massive funeral procession of Jacob. His death was mourned not only by Joseph and his brothers but by the Egyptians. This nomadic shepherd from the hinterlands of civilization is accorded a burial fit for a king by the most powerful nation on earth at the time. The entire process of embalming his body, mourning in Egypt and then traveling to bury his body in Canaan takes over three months. Again, we have to ask, why has Moses recorded all these details? Why didn’t he simply say vv. 12-14? There are basically two points that Moses wants the nation Israel, waiting on the edge of Canaan to enter it and conquer it to see and for us who wait on the edge of the new heavens and the new earth to see.

First of all, it is quite obvious that Joseph’s request of Pharaoh to “go up” and bury his father is a foreshadowing of Moses’ asking Pharaoh to let the nation Israel “go up” out of Egypt that they might worship God. The large company that goes up to the land of Canaan is the prototype of the large company that leaves Egypt at the Exodus and goes up to the land of Canaan. We are not sure of the location of Abel Mizraim but there is a strong possibility that the route that Joseph and his entourage take to bury Jacob is the same route that Moses led the Israelites up out of Egypt to Canaan. In fact, it could be that when the nation Israel receives this account from Moses they are encamped at the same location. All of these details would serve to assure the nation Israel that God had planned their deliverance from Egypt long before they ever left Egypt. God’s affection for them as a people did not begin in Exodus 2:24 when God heard the groaning of the people Israel in their slavery and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God has been concerned for Israel from before the creation of the world. Moses, by recording the details of this burial procession shows how God has been at work on their behalf for a very long time. It also would assure them that just as Joseph and his brothers were able to successfully bury Jacob in his tomb in Canaan, so God would enable them to be buried in the land of Canaan.

But the second thing that would have struck these Israelites like a ton of bricks was the fact that Joseph only had to ask Pharaoh once, not ten times for permission to leave Egypt. Also, Pharaoh’s officials and all the dignitaries of Egypt went up to bury Joseph. Besides all the family of Jacob, all the powerful people of Egypt went up to honor Jacob and went up to the Promised Land. In addition, if you’ll look at v. 9, the Egyptian army went along to protect them. In the Exodus, the Egyptian chariots and horsemen chased after them in order to destroy them and then God destroyed the Egyptian army by drowning them in the Red Sea. Not only are the Egyptians and their army a part of this procession into the Promised Land but also the Canaanites, the forefathers of those tribes that Israel will be commanded by God to wipe out because of their wickedness, are so impressed with this funeral that they commemorate the mourning of Jacob by naming a portion of the land of Canaan in honor of his funeral. What would have been shocking to the Israelites is that all their enemies mourned the death of Jacob and were a part of the journey up into the land of Promise.

God has been working to save his people out of the morass of human sin and misery since before the world began. He first announced his intention to save a people for himself in Genesis 3:15 while announcing the curse that would come upon the world as a result of human rebellion. The Exodus out of Egypt by the nation Israel is the prototype of God’s saving his people through the work of Christ. The picture of our being rescued out of the slavery of sin and death is repeatedly used in the NT. The burial procession of Jacob is the prototype of the Exodus and therefore of the salvation of God through Christ. The power of this story is to show us that God’s plans to save his people are eternal plans. He has purposed this salvation from eternity past and so we can have confidence that he is going to complete what he has begun. Paul says it like this in Ephesians 1:4, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to his pleasure and will.”

This story of the dignitaries of Egypt accompanying the people of God up to the land of promise and of their being welcomed by the people of Canaan points to a greater work than Israel coming out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. This entourage of Jews and Gentiles points to the church of Jesus Christ. God’s salvation is not a salvation that is limited to one race or class of human beings. His salvation is a salvation for the entire world. People from every tribe and tongue and nation are going to gather around the throne of God and around the Lord Jesus Christ in worship. This mixed company going up to the land of Canaan to worship the Lord is described throughout the OT prophets as the pinnacle of the saving work of the Messiah. Zechariah 8:23 says it like this, “In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’” Micah 4:1-2 says, “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, ‘Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

The mixed burial procession of Jacob points ahead to that ultimate day when all the nations of the world will gather around the throne of God and around the Lamb and worship and it points to the ingathering of the nations throughout history until that great day when Christ returns. Jesus said, “This gospel will be preached in all the world as a testimony to the nations and then the end will come.” We are a part of that great company who have joined in the procession up to the Land of Promise. There are people being gathered into that company every day all around the world. I don’t know if you are aware of this or not. Before 1980 there was not a single known Christian in Mongolia. Today there are thousands of Christians and scores of churches in this Buddhist and formerly communist country. The fact that we have sent nine of our members there to help with the ingathering of the Mongolian peoples is a part of what the burial procession of Jacob points to. There is a day coming when all the peoples of the world will stream to the mountain of the Lord to bow before a crucified and resurrected descendant of Jacob, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our destiny and we ought to be full of joyful anticipation of that great day.

God guarantees us a good death so that we will live a good life by…

•  Remembering the promises

•  Regretting that we are not yet home

•  Rejoicing in the victory of Christ

•  And by…

IV. Remaining in the land of suffering until we are called home (vv. 12-14)

The first readers of the book of Genesis, Israelites waiting to enter the Promised Land, would have been shocked by the presence of Egyptian officials and the Egyptian army coming to Canaan with the people of God to honor Jacob but they would have been dismayed when they read v. 14. “After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.” This return to Egypt resulted in 400 years of slavery for the people of God. Why, O why did they not bring their children and livestock with them and just stay in the Promised Land? Why this return to Egypt? Why would God do this to them? Why would he make them go through all those years of suffering? Why expose them to the seductive, pagan practices of the Egyptians? It’s not only the suffering of the Israelites but it also means God having to put up with the rebellion and unbelief of those millions of Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years. If the goal of God was to give this land to the Jewish people, why didn’t he do it when they buried Jacob? Think of all the misery and sin that could have been avoided if Joseph and his brothers would have brought their children and flocks under the protection of the Egyptian army and taken over Canaan or a portion of it right then.

There is no way that we can know all the reasons as to God’s wanting them to live as slaves for 400 years and for God wanting them to go through all the chaos and war that it would take to gain the promised land. However, we are told at least one of the reasons as to why God wanted the Israelites to return to Egypt and to live in slavery and be brought out with a great deliverance. Repeatedly in the opening chapters of the book of Exodus the Lord tells Moses the reason he is going to deliver them out of Egypt. For example in 6:7 the Lord says, “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.” In 9:16 he says to Pharaoh, “But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” God wanted the Israelites to return and live in Egypt and to be oppressed by the Egyptians so that he could glorify himself by delivering them out of their slavery. It is God’s goal to display the glory of his own name in the salvation of his people. He displays his glory in punishing the wicked and in saving all those who trust in his promise in Jesus.

Joseph and his brothers were willing to leave behind the land of Promise and return to the land of Egypt because they knew that God had good purposes for them and for their descendants. They left behind the land of their birth, the land where their fathers were buried, the land they were promised, to wait for God’s perfect timing. They lived and died as strangers in a foreign land awaiting the day of God’s deliverance. They did not know all the details of what God was going to do. They only knew that God was going to deliver them in his time. They knew that he was working in all of the details of their lives and of the lives of their descendants to accomplish his perfect salvation. They knew that God is committed to glorify his name in the world and since God had promised he was going to make them into a great nation and give them the land of Canaan, then they knew God would keep his word. If God does not keep his word, then he will be not be glorified in the world but will be mocked.

God has called us to remain in the land of slavery and suffering while we await the day of final deliverance. We can know that he is going to fulfill all his promises to us and so we can endure whatever trouble comes to us in this world. Just like the suffering of Joseph was necessary to gain the salvation of the world from famine; just as the suffering of Israel in Egypt was necessary to display the power and love of God in their exodus; just as the suffering and death of Jesus was necessary for him to gain the glory of being the Savior of the world; so we have a life of endurance that we must live to attain to the glory that is promised to us. These stories are meant to show us the way in which God works in his world. We want salvation now. God has ordained his salvation to be worked out over a long period of time and through much suffering. We want Joseph and his brothers to stay in the land of Canaan. God wants them to return to the land of suffering and wait for his perfect timing. One day we will see the many ways that God has been glorified in our patient endurance of the trouble that we have encountered in this life. One day our joy will be fuller because we have faithfully remained in the land of slavery and suffering and have not attempted to work our own salvation apart from God. We will come to a good end after living a good life as we faithfully remain in this life of trouble and don’t impatiently try to escape into a salvation of our own making. The wreckage of this world is a necessary part of the salvation that Christ is achieving. We do not need to be afraid of it but can wait for God to save us out of it just as he saved Israel and just as he saved Christ out of the dead.

God guarantees us a good death so that we will live a good life by…

•  Remembering the promises

•  Regretting that we are not yet home

•  Rejoicing in the victory of Christ

•  Remaining in the land of suffering until we are called home