Assurance - Genesis 50

2024.12.15.Sermon Notes. Genesis 50. Assurance

William Akehurst, HSWC

BIG IDEA: A Message of Honor, Comfort, Faith, Trust and Assurance.

Don’t be discouraged. Sometimes GOD’s Promises may take a long time to fulfill, so persevere by trusting HIM.

SCRIPTURES: Genesis 50:1-26, Luke 19:41-42, Romans 8:28, Hebrews 11:1, Exodus 13:18-19

Jacob is buried in Canaan.

Vs 1-3 Jacob is embalmed and mourned.

1 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him, and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 Forty days were required for him, for such are the days required for those who are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him, and kissed him:

The passing of Jacob in the presence of his sons was a deeply moving and dramatic scene.

Joseph commanded the physicians to embalm his father.

Egyptians were skilled in embalming. They believed in the afterlife.

The Egyptians mourned him seventy days:

Jacob was obviously a greatly honored man as he was mourned for 70 days among the whole nation of Egypt.

Interesting fact: Egyptian Pharaohs were mourned for 72 days.

Vs 4-6 Joseph asks Pharaoh for permission to bury his father in Canaan.

4 Now when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, 5 My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come back.’ ”

6 And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.”

Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh:

My father made me swear:

Joseph explained the solemn promise his father required of him, and Pharaoh gave him the liberty to keep the promise and bury Israel in Canaan.

RESPECT: Even though Joseph was 2nd in command, he asked Pharaoh’s permission to bury his father. This shows Joseph’s respect and submission to those in authority.

Vs 7-11 Jacob’s body is brought to Canaan.

7 So 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 as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, 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 gathering.

10 Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. 11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a deep mourning of the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

Joseph went up to bury his father:

And with him…a great procession for a funeral and burial.

Not only as an act of obedience, but also giving honor and love toward his father.

They mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation:

In sorrow and lamentation, this was a day of rededication of the sons of Israel to the God of Israel.

This event didn’t go unnoticed. Egyptians, Canaanites, everybody saw something important was going on. And they gave it a name, Abel Mitraim, meaning “beyond the Jordan.”

This was a testimony of Jacob and his sons, making the statement, “this is important to us.” And something that people would talk about for centuries to come.

Vs 12-14 Jacob’s burial in the cave of the field of Machpelah.

12 So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them. 13 For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place. 14 And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.

HONOR:

His sons did for him just as he had commanded them:

Jacob’s sons had disappointed him in live, but now, they were careful to honor him in his death.

Buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah:

Jacob’s sons carried the body into the cave.

This was the cave purchased by Abraham, and the only part of the land of Canaan that Abraham held deed to.