Lesson 26 – Joseph's Final Days (Genesis 50)
This is a temporary place holder for new content soon to follow
* * *
||| Lesson 26 |||
Joseph's Final Days
* * *
OPEN IT
1. What is the hardest promise you have had to keep?
EXPLORE IT
2. What did Joseph do when his father died? (Gen.50:1–3)
3. What did Joseph ask Pharaoh? (Gen.50:4–5)
4. What was Pharaoh’s response to Joseph’s request? (Gen.50:6)
5. Where did Joseph go, and who went with him? (Gen.50:7–9)
6. What did Joseph do when he reached Atad? (Gen.50:10)
7. What did the Canaanites who saw Joseph think? (Gen.50:11)
8. What did Joseph do? (Gen.50:12–14)
9.What worried Joseph’s brothers after their father died, and what did they do about it? (Gen.50:15–18)
10.How did Joseph respond to his brothers? (Gen.50:19–21)
11.What did Joseph do when he was about to die? (Gen.50:22–25)
12. How old was Joseph when he died, and how was he buried? (Gen.50:26)
GET IT
13. Why is it important to keep one’s promises even when it is inconvenient or difficult to do so?
14. What are the mourning and burial customs practiced in our society?
APPLY IT
What promise do you want to follow through on this week? How?
Commentary Intro
Joseph’s final acts (Gen.50:1-26)
With the death of Jacob, leadership of the family fell to Joseph. The final chapter of Genesis quickly summarizes Joseph’s most important acts before his death. He and his brothers would carry out Jacob’s wishes after first mourning his father, having him embalmed according to Egyptian custom and requesting permission to go to Canaan to bury their father.
In addition, there is another theme in the story of Jacob’s sons that is resolved here: the tension between Joseph and his brothers that was introduced at the very beginning of their story (Gen.37:2-11). It had seemingly been settled when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers in Egypt (Gen.45:1-15). However, with the death of Jacob, Joseph’s brothers were concerned that without the restraining presence of their father, Joseph might feel free to seek revenge for their reprehensible treatment of him.
The book ends with Joseph’s final words to his brothers (Gen.50:22-26; Heb. 11:22), a sort of parallel to Jacob’s final words to his sons in Genesis 49. However, the completion of Joseph’s wishes would wait four centuries (Exod. 13:19; Josh. 24:32).
Jacob’s burial in Canaan (Gen.50:1-14)
Verse 1. Joseph’s reaction to Jacob’s death is unique in the Bible. Only here does someone kiss the deceased. The mention of Jacob’s face recalls God’s promise to Jacob that Joseph would close his eyes when he died (Gen.46:4).
Verses 2-3. We are told that Joseph used his own personal physicians to embalm his father. We are also informed that the forty days taken to embalm Jacob matched the normal time for this procedure, but that the total time that the Egyptians mourned Jacob was seventy days. This, no doubt, included the forty days needed to embalm the body. The seventy-day mourning period demonstrated the high regard in which the Egyptians held Joseph’s father.
With the death of Jacob, leadership of the family fell to Joseph. The final chapter of Genesis quickly summarizes Joseph’s most important acts before his death. He and his brothers would carry out Jacob’s wishes after first mourning his father, having him embalmed according to Egyptian custom and requesting permission to go to Canaan to bury their father.
In addition, there is another theme in the story of Jacob’s sons that is resolved here: the tension between Joseph and his brothers that was introduced at the very beginning of their story (Gen.37:2-11). It had seemingly been settled when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers in Egypt (Gen.45:1-15). However, with the death of Jacob, Joseph’s brothers were concerned that without the restraining presence of their father, Joseph might feel free to seek revenge for their reprehensible treatment of him.
The book ends with Joseph’s final words to his brothers (Gen.50:22-26; Heb. 11:22), a sort of parallel to Jacob’s final words to his sons in Genesis 49. However, the completion of Joseph’s wishes would wait four centuries (Exod. 13:19; Josh. 24:32).
Jacob’s burial in Canaan (Gen.50:1-14)
Verse 1. Joseph’s reaction to Jacob’s death is unique in the Bible. Only here does someone kiss the deceased. The mention of Jacob’s face recalls God’s promise to Jacob that Joseph would close his eyes when he died (Gen.46:4).
Verses 2-3. We are told that Joseph used his own personal physicians to embalm his father. We are also informed that the forty days taken to embalm Jacob matched the normal time for this procedure, but that the total time that the Egyptians mourned Jacob was seventy days. This, no doubt, included the forty days needed to embalm the body. The seventy-day mourning period demonstrated the high regard in which the Egyptians held Joseph’s father.
* * *
* * *
Comments
Post a Comment