LESSON 96
Thank you, Jesus, for showing us that every life has meaning, both in the day to
day sense and in the cosmic and eternal sense. Thank you for teaching us how
to live in a way that will fulfill all your plans and intentions for our lives on every
level of meaning and destiny. Amen.
BIBLE PORTION: Genesis 47:27-31
Genesis 47:27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had
possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.
28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an
hundred forty and seven years.
29 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him,
“If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly
and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt:
30 “But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their
burying place.” And he said, “I will do as thou hast said.”
31 And he said, “Swear unto me.” And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the
bed's head.
DISCUSSION: As Jacob’s life draws to an end, we are led to consider his life
from the point of view of his relationship with God, with his contemporaries, and
with history. The passage for this lesson sheds light on all three.
First, we read about the last seventeen years of Jacob’s life: His family, here
called “Israel,” was tremendously prosperous. They were given land to begin
with, but now they had grown in possessions of land, and in numbers, and in
wealth.
So from the point of view of his contemporaries, Jacob had come to a good end,
after a rough life. He was reunited with his long-lost son, Joseph. He had all the
comforts and pleasures of life in Egypt, during the famine and afterward. His
descendants were sticking together, and turning into the posterity promised to
Abraham. His enemies were long ago put to rest, as far as their influence on his
life. And after seventeen years of enjoying life with Joseph, Jacob is now getting
ready to die in his arms.
But from God’s point of view, there was some things left to be done before Jacob
could die: First of all, he had to arrange to be buried with Abraham and Isaac.
Why? Because they were the first to be called of God as inheritors of the
Promised Land.
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Historically, Jacob was the last to be called to inherit the Land. If the man to
whom this promise had been give not only died in Egypt, but was also buried in
Egypt, it would seal the end of that promise, the end of the hope for Israel to
become a people, the end of the Children of Israel becoming a nation, and the
end of any hope of the nation and the Land becoming the cradle of Messiah.
Jacob’s life had been stressful from its tumultuous beginning in a womb shared
with his deadly enemy, Esau. Then his father loved the enemy brother, though
his mother remembered God’s words to her before the sons’ births. As Scripture
tells us, God said:
“I have loved you,” saith the Lord. “Yet ye say, ‘Wherein hast thou loved us?’ Was not Esau
Jacob's brother?” saith the Lord: “yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains
and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” Malachi 1:2-3
Esau and Isaac connived to steal Jacob’s birthright, and when Jacob bought it
back from Esau, his father and brother ignored the trade. So when Jacob’s
mother told him what to do to be sure he got his birthright, the lying and crafty
father and son accused Jacob of being a thief, ignoring the fact that it was they
who were the thieves!
Yet Jacob’s considerations were always, “What does God want?” That is why,
when he was sent away to find a bride from among his relatives in Haran, God
appeared to him and showed him the complete confirmation of what he’d been
told by his mother, and half-heartedly at the end by his father.
At that time, God also confirmed to him that He would be with him on his
journeys, and would bring him back to the Promised Land in safety.
Jacob’s determination to remain faithful to what God had shown and told him is
manifested most strongly when the greatest desires of his heart were offered to
him: During the terrible days of the famine, news comes to Jacob that his
beloved Joseph is a ruler in Egypt. He has sent food and vehicles for Jacob’s
journey down into Egypt where he and all his family will be cared for by Joseph.
Joseph is still alive, and wants to provide for them all!
Jacob is happy, and starts out toward Egypt and Joseph. Yet, before crossing out
of the Promised Land and into Egypt, Jacob prays and asks God to show him
that what he is doing is truly God’s will. The promises of God for all peoples
through his family were precious to Jacob, and he would rather die than trespass
against God’s commands. If God had told him to go back to the Promised Land
and stay there, I know he would have done it.
So God appeared to Jacob again and reassured him about going to Egypt. But
even after seventeen comfortable years in the midst of plenty and property,
Jacob is still wondering: How will God’s promises be performed now, since all his
family are pretty much settled into life in Egypt?
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So, as his life’s last three acts:
1. Jacob first makes Joseph promise to bury him in the Promised Land, in the
place where Abraham and Isaac are buried. This will keep the eyes of his
children on the Promised Land as a place promised to them by God.
2. Then Jacob calls Joseph and his sons to him and adopts them as sons, so
their families will be tribes among Jacob’s natural sons. This will protect Joseph
and his heirs, and add to their power among their brethren. Also, when God
chooses the Levites to be priests and teachers and judges of the other tribes,
one was needed to replace them, to keep the balance of twelve tribes.
3. Then Jacob gathers his sons and speaks to them prophetically, thus drawing
them into thinking of themselves as a people — not of Egypt, but of God. The
prophesies mainly deal with the future of the Children of Israel once they return
to the Promised Land, and are intended to keep the tribes future-oriented, and
thinking of themselves as one people, and not as individual families.
From the historical point of view, Jacob’s words to Joseph, making him swear not
to bury him in Egypt, but to carry his body back to where his father and
grandfather are buried resulted in a Jewish attachment to the Land that has been
far greater than it would have been if one of the patriarchs had been left in Egypt.
That would have called the promise of the Land into question, and have made
Jewish claims to the Promised Land much weaker. Enemies could ask, “If God
really told Jacob that the Land belonged to his family, why was he not buried in
Hebron, along with Isaac and Abraham?”
But how could Jacob create the necessary closure? He was too old to go back to
the Promised Land alone, and his sons wouldn’t want to leave their prosperous
land to return to that desert land with him. But — aha! — he could ask them to
take his body back for burial.
This would not entail them giving up their prosperous homes in Egypt, but it
would make it clear to them that THE LAND was their ancestral home — their
Promised Land and the grave of their fathers. This would help them remember
that Egypt was only a temporary stage in the creation of the great people who
would eventually grow strong enough in character and large enough in numbers
to be able to go forth with God as their Leader, and conquer the Land.
Messiah needed to have a people and a place that was peculiarly His in order to
be born into the world as a helpless infant. The Children of Israel were already in
training to become that people. Future centuries would continue to shape and
prepare them for their greatest deeds: The writing of the Bible, and the nurture of
Messiah.
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After getting Joseph to swear to him that he would not leave his father’s body in
Egypt, Jacob is exhausted and bows himself on the head of his bed. He is almost
ready to say, with Paul:
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and
not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:6-8
At least, he’ll be able to say this after two more acts of closure that will establish
God’s form on the Children of Israel: Adopting Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and
Menasha, and then drawing his sons together for his last and unifying words to
them, which we’ll read about in the next lesson.
QUESTIONS:
1. What are the three aspects of Jacob’s life that this passage helps us to
contemplate?
2. Briefly describe the considerations of each.
3. What are the three things Jacob needed to do before he could die?
4. Why was the first thing so important?
5. Why was the second thing so important?
6. Why was the third thing so important?
QUESTIONS and ANSWERS:
1. What are the three aspects of Jacob’s life that this passage helps us to
contemplate?
[His relationship with God, with his contemporaries, and with history.]
2. Briefly describe the considerations of each.
[1. He wanted to be faithful to the things God had entrusted to him, and not fall
into carnal lusts like his father. 2. His contemporaries had to give him high marks
for his accomplishments as a mentally retarded man in a cruel era. 3. History
was changed forever by Jacob’s faithfulness to the least detail of God’s call to
him: The Savior was able to save us!]
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3. What are the three things Jacob needed to do before he could die?
[1. He needed to get Joseph’s promise not to bury him in Egypt, but to take his
body to the cave where Abraham and Isaac were buried. 2. He needed to adopt
Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Menasha. 3. He needed to call his sons together
and speak to them prophetically.]
4. Why was the first thing so important?
[If Jacob were not buried in the Promised Land, it would break the chain of
promise, and make the claim of the Children of Israel to the land much weaker.
Perhaps not even enough to motivate them to go there. The Children of Israel
needed to go where their father, Israel, was buried — in the Land of/belonging to
Israel.]
5. Why was the second thing so important?
[It’s not clear why it’s important at the time Jacob did it, but when God chooses
out the tribe of Levi to be the priests and judges of Israel, a tribe is needed to
replace them as one of The Twelve. That explains why one more tribe was
needed. The other new tribe replaced Joseph, who was too good to number
among the brothers who’d all hated him and envied him.]
6. Why was the third thing so important?
[This prophetic meeting of Jacob and his sons would turn the eyes of all the
brothers toward considering themselves as a group, moving into the future
together as the Children of Israel, rather than just motley tribes unrelated to each
other or to God.]
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Jesus, thank you for taking such care to have every “I” dotted and every “t”
crossed in the lives of all who turn to you for help. Thank you for showing us how
to be faithful in the smallest things, because they may have great consequences
in the lives of others, and in eternity. Thank you for loving us so much. Amen.
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