Genesis 47:27–31

Genesis 47:27–31

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Joseph’s Vow to Jacob

27 So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly. 28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the length of Jacob’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years. 29 When the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Now if I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt, 30 but let me lie with my fathers; you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.”

And he said, “I will do as you have said.”

31 Then he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ge 47:27–31

• Transcript

  and make sure that the text message gets sent out to everyone. Hit go live on Facebook and I think we're ready to go. Perfect. Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every weekday morning you and I would get together, have a little bit of coffee. Get into God's word to grow and our love for the Lord together in this year 2023. Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Genesis to the Book of Leviticus. I'm so glad to be with you today. We have some coffee, we'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Your gracious God, wonderful and generous. And we thank you for the grace you have given us. In Jesus Christ. We thank you for this opportunity to read your word. And Father, we pray that as we read your word now, you would help us. Lord, help us to understand these words. Father, we pray that you would apply it to our hearts into our lives in Jesus's name, Amen. All right, so we are wrapping up Genesis 47. So Genesis 47. We only have a few verses today. And they're they're important a couple of verses. So Genesis chapter 47, verses 27 through 31. Let's go ahead and get into God's word. So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt. In the country of Goshen, and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 70 years. So the length of Jacob's life was 140 years, 47 years or 147 years. When the time drew near that Israel must die he called his son Joseph and said to him, now, if I have found a favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh. And deal kindly and truly with me, please do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my father's. You shall carry me out of the land of Egypt and bury me in their burial place. And he said, I will do as you have said, Then he said, swear to me, and he swore to him. So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed. Well, just a few verses. We have to ask ourselves, a What's this about? Be what's the best verses? summarize this and see what are we called to do? In response to this? So what's this about? Well, by the time Jacob makes his way down to Egypt he's already an old man. And now he's 147 years old, he knows is gonna die soon. So he calls his son Joseph to him. And he's planning his funeral. Right? He's, he's telling his son, here's, here's what I want to happen. When I die. Here's how I want you to take care of my body. Here's how I want you to handle things. But he does this in the form of covenant. Right notice first, that they go to the land of Goshen, and in the land of Goshen, what happens to he multiply exceedingly right he has grandkids and great grandkids and there's there's kids running around everywhere God has fulfilled part of his promise to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob is making them into a great nation. He's multiplying them he's he's caring for them. He's blessing them. But see, he's he realizes Egypt isn't his homeland. That's not the place of promise. He wants to go bury be buried with Isaac and with Abraham. Jacob has been made into Israel. The nation's building blocks are there, but the land isn't there yet. Part of the promises being seen but not all of it. And so they want to he wants to be buried back I don't think this is just nostalgia, that he wants to go be buried back in Egypt, but it's firmly held desire. He wants to go to Makhachkala to be buried in that tomb that was bought by Abraham for Sara. US he wants to go back and he wants to be buried, where he ought to be. And Joseph says, okay, Dan, I'll do it nice a swear to me. Put your hand under my thigh. Make promise to me that you're going to do this. And they do it. Right. What is this about? This is Jacob still longing for the promise. He sold longing for that last thing to happen. When the land is going to be his. He knows by this point, he's not going to see it in his life. But he still has faith he still trust that God is going to give it what's the best verse to summarize this Well, I have in my Bible. Now if I found favor in your sight, this is a part of verse 29. Please put your hand under my thigh and deal with me kindly please do not bury me, bury me in Egypt and then verse 30. And then verse 31, swear to me and he's sworn him. What are we called to do in responses, right? God might seem like he takes a long time. To accomplish His promises. But he is going to do it. Even though we might shut our eyes and rest with our fathers. right even though we might go to the grave and be in the intermediate state, God is still working. He is still accomplishing His promises and this purpose is in our lives. So even though the things of God might seem like they take a long time to accomplish, he's going to do it. He's going to fulfill these things. Right, Jacob long for the day that that seed would come from his line that would conquer Satan and that seed has come. But even now we are longing and waiting for the day that Jesus Christ will return and he'll make all things right again. And he's not slow to His promises according to his view of things. To him. 100 days seems like a year or sorry, 100 years seems like a day. It's easy for him. It's not a long time. He's not. He's not slow and his promises. He's going to accomplish them. So do we have that same type of trust? I do want to pick up something on this verse. Alright, that I've been asked a few times lately and I don't want this to be a big fight. Most of the time, the majority of time the large majority of time burial is the norm in the Jewish mindset that God has created our bodies. In his image. He's made us body and soul, mind and flesh. And he's made us with dignity and honor and so we treat the bodies of the dead with dignity and honor in the best way possible, the most honorable way that we have available. And so for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that meant burial for the vast majority of Jewish people, it meant burial. There's only a few times in the Old Testament that we see cremation happen, and that cremation was of the was of King Saul, whose body was mutilated by the Philistines. So they bear they burned him in, in honor. But then later they even went and got his remains and buried them. So Christian burial Jewish burial has been a long term tradition. Of trying to honor the body. But I want to be careful because some people will take this too far. And they'll almost remember talking to a man very godly man, but I just disagreed with him right because he was talking about the necessity of keeping the body perfectly intact. Because of the resurrection. I thought, well, that's fine. But I know that there are probably 10s of 1000s of godly people that were buried at sea died on the ships. And yet the last day their bodies are going to be raised again. God is going to reconstruct their bodies as a miraculous thing that's going to happen. So we need to just recognize the point here is an honorable burial. He wants to be buried, remembering the promises that were given to him and that's what Christian funerals and burials are about. us remembering the promises of God, who he is what he has done in the hope that we have even in death. And so maybe you could think for you maybe this is a practical application for you and your life. Do you have a burial plan? Do your Does your family know what you want preached? How you want the Service conducted what you want, how will they remember your body and show honor to your bones and what will be said Will it be remembering the promises of God? Now I was just thinking, talking to a friend the other day and Warren Buffett right now not exactly a person they go for all the wisdom in the world, but Warren Buffett recently said something along the lines of You know, life is pretty easy. Write your eulogy, and then live backwards. Meaning write your eulogy and then live up to it. What would it say of you? If your life was marked by he never forgot the promises of God? show his clung to the promises of Jesus. I hope that that your prayer and that you long even as you're waging, as you're going on, in life and in death is getting closer and closer. That you might trust him that much more. And that your children and your grandchildren, your great grandchildren even know it. Let's pray. Father, life and long life is a gift from you. I don't know anybody who's lived 147 years. But after one 147 years, Jacob is still clinging to your promises. Father, we pray that we would have that type of fidelity that type of longevity in our faith. Please, Lord, help us to live well. Trusting in your promises and to die well, trusting in your promises. In Jesus's name. Amen. Oh, may God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll see you next time. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai