Thurs.’s Devo - Jacob’s Burial

Read Gen. 50:1-14 I can’t believe we are on our last chapter of Genesis. Where should we go next? Maybe Exodus? When Jacob died Joseph greatly mourned for him and had his body embalmed. They did such a good job of embalming back then that they are finding these bodies today in caves in Egypt. Jacob’s body didn’t stay in Egypt but was carried to Machpelah and buried. The Egyptians mourned for Jacob’s body 70 days before getting permission from the Pharaoh to bury his father where he had requested. All the households of Joseph and his brother’s families traveled back to Canaan. When they got to the threshing floor of Atad they stopped and mourned 7 days. Atad means “to pierce or make fast a thorn tree”. One day a thorn tree would be twisted and made into a crown that would pierce the brow of the saviour of all Israel and the world. But now it was a place of mourning for Israel himself. When the Cannanites of the land saw how hard and long Joseph’s caravan mourned for Jacob, they knew he was an important man. They renamed the place Abel-mizraim to mean the “mourning of the Egyptians”. They continued on to Machpelah and buried him in their family burying place where the other patriarchs were buried. Then they returned to Egypt. The last of the patriarchs was dead. Abraham showed us the love of a father and became the father of many nations. Isaac, showed us the sacrifice Jesus would pay on the cross, and Joseph showed us how Jesus went ahead into heaven to prepare a place for us. Now they are gone and those remaining must carry on their example. Death has a way of sobering us to what is important in this life. It brings a depth that little else can. I got news this morning that my roommate in college lost her 23 year old son. It was her only son. I can’t imagine her grief and can only pray that God’s Holy Spirit will wrap her in his comfort and bring about his purposes in her life.