Genesis Chapter 50
There are circumstances in life that can drive us to our knees wondering where God is. We humans often interpret bad things that happen as reasons to believe that God cannot be trusted. This was not the case with Joseph. He trusted God in the good and the bad circumstances of life knowing that God sees all and that all of life falls under His purpose whether we understand it or not.
Joseph had only just been reunited with his father Jacob (Israel) and now he had passed away. The Bible says that Joseph wept and he mourned.
Let's Reflect
1. What did Joseph command his servants to do with the body of his deceased father?
2. Jacob was given a formal Egyptian funeral in that there were Egyptians who also wept for his father. How long did the Egyptian weep?
3. Joseph got word to the Pharoah that he requested to fulfill his father’s dying request to bury him in his homeland of Canaan. Think about this request for a moment. Joseph had been a slave of the Egyptians for many years and then a respected official of the land for many years and he was now asking to be trusted to take his father’s body out of Egypt. The Pharoah gave his permission for him to go. How many went with Joseph?
4. It must have been very confusing to see men dressed in Egyptian attire weeping for a man they were burying in Canaan. The land that was the burial spot had been purchased by a family patriarch and then passed down to Jacob. What was the man’s name who had purchased the land?
5. Joseph’s brothers feared that he would seek retribution for what they had done to him many years prior now that Jacob was deceased. They seemed to have fabricated a lie to tell Joseph. They sent their message to him by messenger. What was the lie they told him?
6. Joseph was moved to tears. He was hearing his brothers admit to the things they had done as evil. This no doubt stirred up in him the hurt that he had felt all those years ago, but he was also upset that his brothers still did not understand his kind heart. What did his brothers do when in Joseph’s presence because they assumed he still carried resentment towards them?
7. Joseph understood he was not God, and it was not his place to seek revenge. He also did not make light of their deeds. Joseph saw the whole picture how God had known what his brothers would do and used it for his purpose. God allowed this family to survive the famine. He preserved the family that He had made a covenant promise to. What promise did Joseph make to his brothers?
8. Some time had passed and we read that Joseph has now reached the end of his life. He lived long enough to meet his grandchildren of both of his sons. And Joseph spoke a prophecy that is incredible regarding the future of the Hebrew people. What was that prophecy? See verse 24.
9. Believing that God would fulfill this very prophecy he left strict instructions for his own deceased body. What were the instructions?
