Returning to our Proper Place
A. Return
B. Reassurance
C. Removal Promised
DBF, 7/7/02
It is good to be in the presence of God. I feel safe and comfortable there.
In the last year there were numerous happenings that stole this feeling of safety and comfort to people around the world.
The attacks on September 11, 2001 will be remembered forever and has forever robbed so many people of loved ones, marriages, children and parents. So many people that planned on getting to their proper place with God as soon as this or that situation might come about.
It is amazing the amount of calls for prayer and comfort I received here in Dillingham, Alaska. We are so isolated that not much that occurs outside of this area seems to have too much effect. But this incident did—it drove people in the short time to seek to get towards the proper place that God has called each and every one of us to be.
What is this place?
Being set apart—God tells us throughout his word—be ye holy for I the Lord your God am holy. If we seek out any other place we will be miserable.
Let us walk with Joseph today and seek God’s wisdom and understanding as they prepare to bury Jacob/Israel.
A. Return
Genesis 50:1-14 (KJV)
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. [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.
[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. [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. [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 Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. [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.
Verse 1-3
We see that Joseph mourns his father whom he loved.
Do we rightly mourn for the sorrows in life—or do we live by a set of rules that say a real man doesn’t cry?
I know that the greatest man and god that I know and love wept at the things he saw around him, and if Jesus felt it natural to cry—I feel that it is natural for a man or women to cry over things that are lost.
Gloria and I had to return to the Philippines last December for the burial of my dearly beloved brother in law Danilo Gonsalez. We participated in a wake for ten day which was something new for me.
The greatest moments of grief to me was getting there and coming to the realization that it was indeed true and when the bearer’s came for the casket. The time in between those were sweet times of rememberance with family and friends.
In like manner the standard time for embalming was 40 days with the total time of mourning in Egypt being about 70 days.
Verse 4-6
Joseph, by means of Pharaoh’s courtiers, not in person, because he was a mourner, applies for leave to bury his father in the land of Canaan, according to his oath. This leave is freely and fully allowed.
Not only allowed but several of Pharaoh’s family and dignitaries accompany Joseph to the burial and return of Jacob/Israel.
Do you seek dignity and honor in your present struggles for the completion of the works that God has laid before you?
Do not look longingly or desire these accolades too greatly. God has promised you an eternal place of honor in HIS glorious presence and no amount of dignitaries this side will ever be able to be so greatly honored.
Verse 7-14
The funeral procession is now described. “All the servants of Pharaoh.” The highest honor is conferred on Jacob by God through the place HE has brought Joseph to.
“The elders of Pharaoh, and all the elders of the land of Mizraim.” The court and state officials are here separately specified. “All the house.” Not only the heads, but all the sons and servants that are able to go.
Chariots and horsemen accompany them as a guard on the way.
Upon arriving at “The threshing-floor of Atari, or of the buck-thorn.” There was an additional 7 day mourning period because they were in the promised land of God.
Do you marvel that you have been guaranteed a place in God’s Kingdom—God’s Promised Land?
We should consider this most excellent gift of grace and continually give God Praise for it.
The family then proceeds “His sons carried him.” The main body of the procession seems to have halted beyond the Jordan, and awaited the return of the immediate relatives, who conveyed the body to its last resting-place.
You see however much the procession longed to accompany Jacob-Israel the covenant was not for them.
Have you entered into a covenant through Christ with God today? This is the only way to ensure you have a place in God’s eternal Kingdom.
B. Reassurance
Genesis 50:15-21 (KJV)
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.
Have you come to that place in life that your sins are catching up to you?
Do you feel you deserve punishment for the way you have lived your life?
The answer is that every man has sinned and falls short of the glory of God and so doing deserves death.
Yet Christ came while we were yet sinners to make a way.
In like manner Joseph’s brother thinks upon their sinfulness against Joseph. They rightly know what they deserve—the same thing you and I deserve.
But Oh glorious day, that I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and in so doing God’s grace—totally undeserved flowed to me.
Verse 15-21
His brothers ask Joseph for forgiveness.
They were so scared “They sent unto Joseph,” they had someone else go and ask and speak to him in place of themselves.
“And Joseph wept” at the distress and doubt of his brothers. He no doubt summons them before him, when they fall down before him entreating his forgiveness.
We must all come before God and ask forgiveness. I have an individual requirement to do so and a corporate (church body) requirement to do so. I can negatively impact the work of God if I fail to do so. God cannot look upon sin—so if I am not confessing my sins and other church members are not confessing their sins then God cannot look upon us with favor and the complete work of HIS body is hindered.
Please do not hinder the work of God. As Joseph’s brother’s confess your sinful ways to God, HE is able to restore you to full and right fellowship.
Joseph removes their fears. “Am I in God’s stead?” that I should take the law into my own hands, and take revenge. God has already judged them, and moreover turned their sinful deed into a blessing. He assures them of his brotherly kindness toward them.
C. Removal Promised
Genesis 50:22-26 (ESV)
So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s house. Joseph lived 110 years. [23] And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph’s own. [24] And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." [25] Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." [26] So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Verse 22-26
The biography of Joseph is now completed.
“The children of the third generation”—the grandsons of grandsons in the line of Ephraim.
“And Joseph took an oath.” Joseph notified God’s people that he had unwavering confidence in the return of the sons of Israel to the Promised Land.
This promise is not within Joseph but we see that Joseph’s confidence near death is place where his confidence has been throughout his life—in God.
“God will surely visit.” He was embalmed and put in a coffin, and so kept by his descendants, as was not unusual in Egypt. And on the return of the sons of Israel from Egypt they kept their oath to Joseph Exo. 13:19, and buried his bones in Shekem Jos. 24:32.
We in like manner should look forward to the glorious day that the son of man will return.
One thing required for us to look forward to this is that we come to a point in our lives that we recognize that we are sinners. The bible tells us “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
All that is required is for you to go through the A-B-C’s of salvation.
Admit to God that you are a sinner.
Believe that Jesus is God’s only son.
Commit your life to the Lord above, and invite him into your life.
If you would like to pray this prayer or would like to come forward with any prayer we invite you to do so at this time. We would love to lift you up and share your burdens.
I pray that you have enjoyed our journey through Genesis, it is a truly wonderful book. It lifts the veil of mystery that hangs over the present condition of the human race. It records the origin and fall of man, and thus explains the co-existence of moral evil and a moral sense, and the hereditary memory of God and judgment in the soul of man. It records the cause and mode of the confusion of tongues.
It records the call of Abraham, and thus accounts for the preservation of the knowledge of God and his mercy in one section of the human race, and the corruption or loss of it in all the rest. It records God’s account of creation as six days’ which accounts for the present state of nature. It thus solves the fundamental questions of physics, ethics, philology, and theology for the race of Adam.
It gradually unfolds the purpose and method of grace to the returning penitent through a Deliverer who is successively announced as the seed of the woman, of Shem, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. This is the second Adam, who, when the covenant of works was about to fall to the ground through the failure of the first Adam, undertook to uphold it by fulfilling all its conditions on behalf of those who are the objects of the divine grace.
The Lord establishes his covenant successively with Adam, Noah, and Abraham; with Adam after the fall tacitly, with Noah expressly, and with both generally as the representatives of the race descending from them; with Abraham especially and instrumentally as the channel through which the blessings of salvation might be at length extended to all the families of the earth.
This book is worthy of the constant study of intelligent and responsible men and women.
Closing Prayer.
