THROUGH THE BIBLE COMMENTARY
This program of daily devotions is designed to take you through the Bible in three years. It is our desire to help you gain a better general understanding of God's Word.
Please understand that in a study this brief, we will be concerned with only the major emphases and context of the Scriptures.
Each day a devotion for one or two chapters is posted, beginning with chapter one of Genesis and going through chapter twenty-two of Revelation. You are free to print each page as it appears.
Bruce McGee, Pastor
205 Adams
Columbia, LA 71418
GENESIS
CHAPTER 50
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 threescore and ten days.
When a loved one dies, we pay great respect to them when we can't help
but remember them with tears and sorrow for our loss. Mourning is a great
sorrow of the heart. But mourning is good if it is "let out." It can
only bring us harm if we "hold it in."
Even though Joseph had been prepared, and knew he must lose his father,
he loved him so much the sorrow and tears flooded outward.
Joseph allowed his father to be "embalmed" after the tradition of the
Egyptians. And notice the length of the mourning period - 70 days!
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 shalt 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.
Joseph, being a loving son, wanted to follow the will of his father and
take him back to Canaan. So he pled with Pharoah for grace to carry out
his father's wishes. Pharoah not only agrees, but also sends an envoy
of soldiers for protection (see vs 9).
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.
This was a LARGE group of people making the trip: Joseph's family, elders
from Israel, elders from Egypt, servants, soldiers, etc. The people of Egypt
and Pharoah must have held great respect for Jacob to have sent the elders to join
in this journey.
Perhaps the people of Egypt had at first held a prejudicial viewpoint of these
shepherds; but Jacob's LIVING before them had made them realize what
a great people Jacob and his family were.
Christians, we need to follow this example. We should live before the world in such
a way as to remove prejudices which may be against us.
10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
Here's a note of interest I couldn't help but pass on from my study.
A 6th century Medeba Map of this area locates ALON-ATAD that is between Jerico
and the Dead Sea. This brings up another interesting thing. The NORMAL
trade route to Hebron, where the cave of Machpela was located, was North
by NW from the land of Goshen in Egypt. But was there an alternate route
through the Sinai Peninsula? Atad, the Bible says here in vs 10, is "BEYOND
Jordan." That means it is East of Jordan. This would mean that the route Joseph
chose was probably the route he had followed from Canaan to Egypt when he was sold
into the hands of the Midianites as a slave.
Now the reason that this is so interesting to me is that's about the same route
Moses later uses to carry the Israelites back to Canaan. Perhaps a minor point, but
one well worth the research. THIS trade route was probably forgotten by the
Israelites during their 400 years of slavery. But Moses spent 40 years in that
wilderness after he murdered the Egyptian taskmaster, and before God called him to
"deliver" the Israelites out of Egypt.
Therefore, God PRESERVED the knowledge of this trade route which could be
the EXACT direction He wanted them to follow later.
God has a way of doing things that defies logic!!
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 Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
The mourning for Jacob by his sons and this huge company of people was so sincere
that the people who lived in the land renamed it from ATAD to ABELMIZRAIM - which literally means: the mourning of the Egyptians.
There were more Egyptians attending than Israelites, and all were dressed in
Egyptian attire. Therefore the Israelites are identified as Egyptians for a time.
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 Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace 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.
The burial being completed, they all returned to Egypt. It is appropriate and
expresses our grief when we mourn. But we must not let our losses consume our purpose.
We must "get on" with life.
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 a messenger 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, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? 20 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.
The fear of the brothers is refurbished since the loss of the father. And that fear
probably increases since they know that Jacob conferred "first-born" rites upon Joseph.
They wanted to be sure Joseph would not harm them. Notice Joseph's answer (vss 20-21).
MY! How wonderfully righteous God shows Joseph to be! With all the reason in the
world to have hatred in his heart, there is nothing but love and compassion.
What an EXAMPLE for you and me!
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: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees. 24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 25 And 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 ends with Joseph's death. He was the saviour of the Israelite people in that age.
Now we shall come to another age. The age of slavery. And we will see God anoint another saviour for Israel - Moses.
As we study through the Old Testament, remember that God is REVEALING Himself to us.
He is revealing that mankind NEEDS salvation, and that HE, and HE ALONE, can provide a Saviour!
All these men who "deliver" Israel from difficulties are only typifications of the ONE
TRUE SAVIOUR - JESUS CHRIST!
Please continue to follow along in Bible study with us.