Genesis 50

Genesis 50:1-3

Here is, 1. The preparation for Jacob’s funeral, vers. 1—6. 2. The funeral itself, vers. 7—14. 3. The settling of a good undesignating between Joseph and his brethren, after the death of Jacob, vers. 15—21. 4. The age and death of Joseph, vers. 23—26. That the kind of Greeks, which began with the originals of light and life, ends with nothing but death and darkness, so sad a change has for made. 1. AND Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. 2. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. 3. And forty days were fulfilled for him, (for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed) and the Egyptians mourned for him therefore and ten days. Hich. Wyst. Joseph’s love extends even to the clay-cold corpse of his departed father. 1. He kisses, and weeps over it; pious tears, that testify the duriful and affectionate child. Note, They who live respected, will die lamented. 2. He orders the body to be embalmed, in order to be preserved for burial in Canaan. We have vile bodies, and have need be humble in them, where we know they will be quickly loathsome to our dearest friends. 3. There was a solemn mourning, in which the Egyptians, to do honour to Joseph, partook therefore and ten days. Note, It is kind, and a duty, by partaking to alleviate the sorrows of the afflicted. 4. And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5. My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me, in the land of Canaan, there shall thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. 6. And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. 7. ¶ And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt. 8. And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great company. 10. And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very fine lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-miaraim, which is beyond Jordan. 12. And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them. 13. For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machepah; which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying-place, of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. 14. ¶ And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

Genesis 50:4-14

Joseph follicles leave of absence, and Pharaoh kindly consents he should fulfil his oath to his father. Hereupon he immediately proceeds to Canaan. 1. The funeral was most honourably attended; not only all Jacob’s family who could travail, went, but in respect to Joseph, the great men of Pharaoh’s household, and the chief of the Egyptians, chariots and horsemen, a great company. Note, (1.) Those who have been eminent in their day, deserve to be honourably a Chap. xliii. 30. a 3. Chap. xxi. 14. 16s. xxii. 16. Mat. xxvii. 60. a 1. 8am. xxii. 13. Job ii. 15. i. e. The mourning of the Egyptians Chap. xliv. 30. Afls. vii. 16. 4 Chap. xxiii. 18. Helen Christ

1604. nourishly attended to their grave. (2.) When we attend the funerals of others, it becomes us seriously to think of our own.

1605. Their great forrow, v. 10, 11. brings a name on the place, the mourning of the Egyptians. Who could have thought they who thus lamented the father, could so forely have afflicted the children. Note, The death of a great good man is not only a loss to his family, but to his country.

1606. Joseph’s return according to his promise. Note, We must not give way to over much forrow: the living call for our regard, and our tears cannot profit the dead.

2 Heb. Charged. b Chap. xls. 1 Rom. xii. 19. b Ife. v. 7. 4 Heb. To their heart.

15. ¶ And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. 16. And they sent messengers unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying. 17. So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: And now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. 18. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold we be thy servants. 19. And Joseph said unto them, ^a Fear not: for ^1 am I in the place of God? 20. ^b But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. 21. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

Genesis 50:15-21

Conscious guilt awakens the fears of Joseph’s brethren: their father’s death they look upon as an open door for Joseph’s revenge. How apt are we to judge of others, by our own wicked hearts. We have,

1. Their application to him thereupon. With deep humility they acknowledge their sin, and supplicate that forgiveness they knew they deferred not. Note, We should never forget, nor cease to bewail the iniquities of our former days. They plead their common father’s command, who no doubt enjoined it, not out of suspicion of Joseph, but to prove the repentance of his brethren: and more than that, they plead their common relation to their father’s God; a prevalent plea they knew, with pious Joseph. Learn, (1.) They who would have forgiveness, should humble themselves to ask it. (2.) We are bound to treat them with especial tenderness, who are worshippers of the same God, and sharers in the same covenant.

2. Joseph’s kind and affectionate reply. He wept with joy to see their submission, or that they should have a suspicion of his regard; and humbly directs them to God: his forgiveness is

their great concern. Note, Though we should be careful to humble ourselves to men, when we have offended, our chief concern should be to repent of the sin which God only can forgive. He extenuates their offence against himself, in the view of the good which God produced from it, and bids them fear not, but be assured of his continual care and regard, with every kind expression which could comfort their down-call hearts. Note, (1.) God, though never the author of evil, can bring good out of evil; not that sin thereby is less malignant, but he appears more glorious. (2.) Broken spirits need kind words. (3.) A brotherly heart will be not only ready to forgive the injurious, but the first to comfort them, when desponding.

22. ¶ And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. 23. And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation: ^a the children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, ^b were brought up upon Joseph’s knees. 24. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and ^c God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land, unto the land ^d which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 25. And ^e Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. 26. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Genesis 50:22-26

Joseph was long spared through mercy, to fulfill his promise to his brethren. Here is,

1. His blessing in his children. He saw his son’s sons, to the third generation: it is the comfort of age, to see an increasing and prosperous family.

2. His last injunctions to his brethren, when he perceived his death approaching. He confirms them in the fulfilment of God’s promise, v. 24. Bids them expect their removal, and neither be induced by prosperity to settle in Egypt, nor faint under any adversity, for God would bring them up. He charges them to take his bones along with them: though he dies in Egypt, he will not be buried there, but expresses his own faith, and strengthens theirs by this pledge, and the oath he required of them. He then expires content, in a good old age; and after embalming, is laid in his coffin, ready for removal, when God’s appointed time shall call them into the promised land. Note, (1.) When we lose our best friends, and are lying down in our coffins, our comfort is, that God will surely bring us up again in a resurrection day. (2.) A decent care ought to be had of the corpse, not for any effect it can produce on the departed soul, but in honour to its having been once the temple of the Holy Ghost, and in prospect of its rising again a glorious body, to be the companion of saints and angels to eternity.