Genesis 50:22–26

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2022, Lord, is it 23? And it's only on weekday mornings. I don't know what's going on with my brain this morning. We go from the book of Genesis to Leviticus. Why don't we have some coffee?
We'll get into the Lord's Word and we'll grow in our love for the Lord together. All right, let's pray father what a great blessing it is to be your children What an amazing time in history to live When we have seen so many of your promises fulfilled And when we have your word in languages we can understand It is a great blessing to sit at your feet lord and to hear from you God, we pray that you would please help us. Help us to understand your word, and we need your spirit to apply it to our lives.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we're at Genesis chapter 50. Genesis chapter 50. We're going to go from verse 22 through 26. And just to give you a spoiler alert, this is the death of Joseph, his trust, and his dying breaths of God's promises. And guess what? God's going to keep his promises. We're going to see that as we wrap up the chapter. Okay, actually wrap it up with the book of Genesis. Tomorrow will be in Exodus. Here we go.
So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's household. And Joseph lived 110 years. Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children of Mechir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph's knees. 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, which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you. You shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died being 110 years, and they embalmed him and put him and he was or embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. Well, only place a coffin is mentioned in the Bible.
That's OK. He's. Joseph, it was hard. What's this getting? Joseph is about to die. But he wants, he gathers together everyone. He's lived a long life. He's 110 years old. He's got grandbabies that have been raised up on his knees, right? He's been playing with them and talking with them and he's been blessed. He's had a long life. He's seen generation and generation and generation, right? Three generations. This is great. He's got babies and grandbabies and great grandbabies, right? He sees them and he loves them. This is awesome.
But he wants them to know he's gonna die, but God's not done with them. It's not like the story ends with Joseph. He says God's gonna visit you. He's gonna remember his promises He's going to take you to the land of Canaan And when you go, I want you to take my bones with you He's buried in a coffin. He's put when he's dead In a in a tomb most likely more like a mausoleum type thing. He's there But he's gonna want to go Joseph is so clinging on to the promise of God, knows that God is still true, God is still working, God is still alive, that he tells him, take my bones with you. Don't leave me here in Egypt, but take my bones with you to Canaan.
This is a land that God had promised and Joseph, with his dying breath, is still believing in God's promises. I'm just going to kind of talk to you from the heart here this morning and tell you that's one of my favorite things. I can't tell you how much I love recently in our congregation, we've had two of our oldest members die within one year and both of them amazing Christians clinging to the promises of God, even with their dying breaths. Whether it was Ralph McDonald, who was almost 100 years old, and every time I'd go to the nursing home and open up my Bible, he would just smile ear to ear, and he'd want to sing psalms, and he'd want to hear God's word, and he'd want to pray.
He was still clinging on to God's promises, even when his eyesight was going and his body was failing, he knew that God was still keeping his promises. He knew that he would be gathered together. with God's people. And then whether it was Miss Virginia, right, this elderly woman who was a pillar of the faith, you're a co-worker in the gospel, a woman who was so devoted to the children in the community and so devoted to her church family, but she trusted God's promises even with her dying days.
She would still, even though she didn't live here anymore, she was in Indiana. She was removed from us by presence, but not by spirit. She was still definitely wanting to be a member of our church. She would watch. She would make sure that she had her kids or her helpers, whoever would be there, to turn on the sermon so she could watch and worship with God's people every Lord's Day. And she would want to know everything about what was going on. And she would want to pray because she knew that God was still working. And when she died, she died in peace.
Do you trust God's promises? Even as you're getting old, even as your health fails, will you look back on your life and know that God is good, that he has filled your days? Yes, there might be hard things. Joseph had his full share of difficulties in this life, but he knew that God was good to his word. We're going to find out as we get to Exodus, especially around chapter 13. And then if we kept going into Joshua chapter 24, we would find that it is indeed true that God would keep his promise. Joseph's bones would not be left in Egypt. Even though there's about to be four centuries of hardship, God always keeps his promises. And so this is what Joseph clings to. He knows that God is good.
Do you? Do you in your life? Is that the testimony that you will leave to your children and grandchildren? You know, I've lived a hard life. There are many difficult things, but God has blessed me. God has filled me with many good things. There's been difficulties, yes. That's life. But. Does God. Still stand by his word? Do you believe that? Do you cling to that? Do you let that be a testimony in your youth and even in your old age? Let's pray.
Father, please teach us to be faithful, trusting people, that even as we go down to the grave, people might have a testimony about us. of how often and frequently we reminded them of God's goodness, of your covenant mercies. Lord, we thank you. We thank you for how good you are to us in this life. In Jesus's name, Amen. Well, may you rest in the truthfulness of God, his covenant faithfulness, and his love for you. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.