The Bones Of Joseph
Hebrews 11:22
By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of
the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his
bones.
Matthew 6:21
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
To many of us, this question of where to bury the bones after
passing away might seem to be an insignificant and unimportant
matter. But to God, this issue is a matter of faith and heart.
God said that Joseph was a man of faith. By faith, Joseph, as he was
approaching the end of his earthly life, confidently spoke that God
would deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt. As Joseph was
assured of the sure promises of God, he instructed them and their
future descendants to carry his bones with them upon their Exodus.
The story of Joseph the dreamer is one of my favorites in the Bible.
Out of the 50 chapters in the Book of Genesis, 14 chapters were
about his life (Genesis 37-50).
Joseph was the son of Jacob and Rachel. He lived in the land of
Canaan with ten half-brothers, one full brother, and at least one
half-sister.
He was the firstborn of Rachel and the eleventh son of Jacob. Of all
the sons, Joseph was the favorite of his father. Jacob gave Joseph
a coat of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their
father loved him more than all of them, they hated him and
could not speak peaceably to him.
When Joseph was seventeen years old, he had two dreams. In the first
dream, Joseph and his brothers were out in the field binding
sheaves. But his sheaf stood up, and the sheaves of his brothers
gathered around it and bowed down before it. In the second dream,
the sun (father), the moon (mother), and eleven stars (brothers)
bowed to Joseph.
These two dreams really made his brothers furiously angry. The
dreams implied that Joseph would be supremely more powerful than his
brothers and even his own parents. They then plotted to get rid of
Joseph.
Joseph was a dreamer. Instead of beginning to live those dreams out,
he went through a lot of interesting detours including being sold
into slavery and wrongfully imprisoned. Everything seemed to be
going in the opposite direction of the dreams that God had placed in
his heart. Totally different from what he could ever imagined.
After being sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, he eventually
rose to become vizier, the second most powerful man in Egypt next to
Pharaoh. And his presence and office in the courts of Pharaoh caused
Israel to leave Canaan and settle in Egypt.
Joseph was the first of his family to go down into Egypt. It was all
in the divine and perfect plan of God. God sent Joseph to Egypt
ahead of time to preserve lives and to keep his family alive.
Genesis 45:4-8
4 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they
came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold
into Egypt.
5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves
because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to
preserve life.
6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and
there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing
nor harvesting.
7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you
in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God;
and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house,
and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
But to remain in Egypt forever was not Joseph's dream and desire!
Joseph's dream was remarkably more and better! Not to be just
powerfully rich and famous in Egypt, but to return to the land that
God had promised to Abraham, his great grandfather!
Since it was his own family who sold and sent him to Egypt, it had to be
his family who would eventually carry him out of Egypt and back to
Canaan.
After surviving the famine and enjoying some good years
while Joseph was still known and honored in Egypt,
the children of Israel then went into oppression and affliction,
becoming slaves in the land of Pharaoh for 400 years. But God
promised a deliverer who would rescue them, and bring them back to
their Promised Land. And Joseph didn't desire to remain in Egypt,
whether alive or dead!
Joseph desired to be buried where his forefathers were buried. His
father Jacob also had the same heart desire. When Jacob died in Egypt, the
whole family and even the Egyptians, mourned him for seventy days.
Joseph had his father embalmed, a process that took forty days to
complete. Then he prepared a great ceremonial journey back to Canaan
to bury Jacob. The servants of the Pharaoh, the elders of the houses
of Israel and Egypt went on a very long funeral, journeying beyond
the Jordan River.
They stopped at Atad, and observed seven days of mourning there.
Their lamentations were so great that they caught the curiosity and
attention of surrounding Canaanites who remarked “This is a deep
mourning of the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel
Mizraim, which was beyond the Jordan.
So the sons of Jacob did for him just as he had commanded them. They
carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the
field of Machpelah, before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the
field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place. After
they had buried their father, Joseph and his brothers returned to
Egypt. The Biblical account of the death and burial of Jacob can be
found in Genesis 49:29-50:14.
Likewise, Joseph desired to be buried in the same land where his
forefathers were buried. Why? Because he desired to be with his family.
It is in the land of promise,
and not in the land of punishment and slavery. It is not just a place
of burial but also a place of resurrection when their Messiah comes!
It is going back to Eden! Back to be with God!
Before his death, Joseph made his brothers promise with an oath that
they would take his body back with them when they returned to
Canaan. Joseph died at the age of 110, and they embalmed him, and
his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Genesis 50:22-26
22 So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household.
And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years.
23 Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The
children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on
Joseph’s knees.
24 And Joseph said to his brethren, “I am dying; but God
will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of
which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
25 Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel,
saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones
from here.”
26 So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and
they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Throughout 400 years of affliction and slavery in Egypt, the
children of Israel remembered their oath. When they left Egypt in
their Exodus, Moses took Joseph's bones with him.
Exodus 13:19
And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he
had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying,
“God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from
here with you.”
As the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40
years, they carried the bones of Joseph with them throughout their
whole
journey. After entering the Promised Land, they buried the bones in
Shechem, in the plot of land Jacob had bought from the sons of
Hamor. This land was located in the territory assigned to the tribes
of Joseph.
Joshua 24:32
The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had
brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the
plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the
father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and
which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph.
Joseph's dream was not to be prosperous and powerful in the pagan
land of Egypt. He had higher aspirations and godly desires. When
God came to deliver Israel out of Egypt, he didn't want to be left behind! He
desired to be buried in the land that God had allocated to him and
his children! Nothing less.
The hope of Joseph was echoed in
a Jewish poem that in due course became the national anthem of
Israel.
It was called "Hatikvah" or "The Hope":
As long as the Jewish spirit
Is
yearning deep in the heart,
With eyes turned toward the East,
Looking toward Zion,
Then our hope –
The 2000-year-old hope –
Will not be lost:
To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Even at his death, Joseph still trusted the promises of God. He was
living by faith even when he was dying. Always believing and trusting God
throughout the journey of earthly life and beyond. He had a heavenly
hope and home.
Hebrews 11:13-16
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but
having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the
earth.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they
seek a homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from
which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly
country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He
has prepared a city for them.
Though Joseph was the second most powerful man in Egypt next to
Pharaoh, his heart was not fixed and focused upon earthly treasures and riches.
Matthew 6:19-21
19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and
rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Joseph knew that he was just a stranger and pilgrim on earth! He desired
something more heavenly and divine!
He was laying up treasures in heaven.
He had a home in the city of
God! He was no fool who gave what he could not keep to gain what he
could not lose.
Matthew 16:25-26
25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for My sake will find it.
26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole
world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange
for his soul?
Today, God is raising up a Joseph Generation. They are
not a people who are super rich, know how to make good money and bring
some
into the household of God to build bigger and grander churches. They
are not aggressively doing social networking and promoting business
ventures in the marketplace.
I believe that the Joseph Generation is a last-day remnant - a
people whom God is raising up to help His church survive through a
time of spiritual famine! They are called to preserve lives and not
to make lots of money!
And they will be tested by God Himself. The true result is not about
financial possessions, social positions and powerful prestige. God
is testing the integrity, magnanimity and truthfulness of their hearts!
Psalm 105:16-22
16 Moreover He called for a famine in the land;
He destroyed all the provision of bread.
17 He sent a man before them—
Joseph—who was sold as a slave.
18 They hurt his feet with fetters,
He was laid in irons.
19 Until the time that his word came to pass,
The word of the LORD tested him.
20 The king sent and released him,
The ruler of the people let him go free.
21 He made him lord of his house,
And ruler of all his possessions,
22 To bind his princes at his pleasure,
And teach his elders wisdom.
This Joseph Generation is wholly dedicated and devoted to the
Lord. They commune with Him daily as they are led by the Spirit in
every area of their lives. Some of them are now coming out of great
trials and testings to enter a place of effective ministry,
revelation, wisdom and fruitfulness.
May we be like Joseph, living by faith and looking beyond our earthly life and hoping
for a better home in heaven. May God be not ashamed to be called our
God. Jesus had gone to prepare a place for us in eternity. To dwell
with Him forever in the house of the Lord!
Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD
Forever.
While on earth, let's live by faith, and lay up treasures in
heaven. His goodness and mercy shall surely follow us all the days
of our life!
Written on: 29 January 2018