August 18, 2002 Genesis 48:15-16, 49:33, 50:24-26
Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, 16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm —may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth.”. . . 33 When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people. . .
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” 25 And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.” 26 So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Today we are concluding the sermon series and Bible classes on the life of Joseph. I hope that you’ve enjoyed listening to it as much as I’ve enjoyed preparing it. Like a roller coaster we’ve gone up and then down in Joseph’s life. Today we almost stagger off the ride of Genesis and proclaim, “Wow! That was an amazing trip!”
However, we can’t get off the ride just quite yet. Today we face the saddest and most terrifying trip in most peoples’ lives - the final stretch - called death. In keeping with tradition then, today we are going to have a funeral - not just one - but two - as we look at the deaths of Jacob and Joseph. Usually at a funeral - people like to have what they call “eulogies.” I believe the word “eulogy” comes from the Greek words eu - which means “well,” and logia, which means “words.” In other words, eulogies, then, are meant to be well words spoken about the deceased. There are plenty of good things to say about Jacob and Joseph. But today, at the funerals of Jacob and Joseph, we are going to offer -
A Different Kind of Eulogy
I. It talks about someone else’s past
Some people put a lot of time into planning their own funerals. They want people to say good things about them. Legend has it that when King Herod died he ordered that certain children also be murdered to make sure there would be mourning on that day. Sometimes people put a lot of planning into their own funerals - even their own eulogies. The story is told of a rich man whose brother James had just died. He came to the pastor and offered him a million dollars to tell the congregation that his brother James was a saint. The problem was that his brother was a cheat, a crook, an adulterer, and a perverse man. The pastor agreed. When the funeral came he said, “James was a cheat, a crook, an adulterer, and a perverse man. But compared to his brother, he was a saint”. A eulogy used to be a short part of a funeral sermon, usually reserved for the part right after the sermon - where the pastor would read a short paragraph describing the life of the departed one. Lately, however, the whole funeral has evolved into a “celebration of life.” At these “celebrations,” as far as I’ve experienced them, they will have videos of the departed put to music, multiple people get up to the mic and give testimonies about what they remember about the departed. They focus on the one who has died.
The sad fact is that these “celebrations” do not comfort anybody - not in the end. They only make them miss their loved ones all the more. As much as they try to cheat death, death still roars at them when they return home to find only pictures and mementos of days gone by - not the real thing. And so many people end up more sad after the funeral than they did in the beginning. What a sad thing it would be to only look back at the PAST and remember the life that is NO MORE.
How did Jacob prepare for his death? What kind of a eulogy did he prepare for? On his death bed, did he just talk about what a great life he had lived? Did he just spend his final days crying and talking about HIS past? Not at all. Notice that in these chapters Jacob doesn’t do any eulogizing about himself. Instead of being depressed about himself, what does he do?
Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, 16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm —may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth.”
What Jacob gave his sons was much better than memories of days gone by. He gave them something that would last longer than an inheritance or a picture book. He reminded them of a much greater heritage that he had - the fact that God had been there to guard and protect him, his father, and his grandfather. He told them that the Angel - Jesus Christ before the flesh- whom he had wrestled with - had redeemed his life and kept him safe. These reminders of God’s past in his life were to produce faith in their lives, so they would reason with their faith, “we want this God in our lives!” The one thing that would last into an eternity was giving them the blessings of their eternal God.
Through this spoken blessing Jacob was also turning to the one Person who had the power to perform this miracle in his sons - the Holy Spirit. He was praying that the Holy Spirit would confer his NAME - his reputation on his children. Jacob wanted these children to be forever known as Israelites - ones who wrestled with God in prayer and TRUSTED in him. That’s what it meant to be an Israelite - to have the NAME of Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. With this FAITH, God would protect them and take care of them. Do you see how Jacob’s eulogy was different from the world’s? Who did Jacob talk about in his eulogy? I would call it Jacob’s YOU logy. He talked not about “me, me, me,” but about what would happen to you, you and you - his sons - through HIM, HIM, HIM - the only true God.
What a great funeral we have gone to then! It opens our eyes to what is really important at the time of death. How often do you hear people say, “before I die I want to . . . go to Germany, sky dive, take a cruise. . .” the list goes on and on. We live in a society that is obsessed with doing more and more and more. These kinds of thoughts can drive us nuts, because deep down we know that we haven’t done enough - not for our children, our selves, but most importantly for our GOD. How often do we feel that we’ve ever done enough? Meanwhile, Jacob laughs at us, relaxes on his bed, kicks his feet up, and dies in peace.
Wouldn’t it be strange if someone got up to read your eulogy at a funeral, but they read a description of someone that wasn’t even you? If they said, “this man saved millions of people. He never sinned. He was a perfect saint his whole life. He took care of the poor. He healed the sick.” You’d say, “that’s not my eulogy!” But when we, like Jacob look not to our own past, but the past in Christ, that’s when we can kick up our feet and die in peace. When we look at what GOD has done in our past, that we can take comfort. Two thousand years ago, Jesus became you on the cross - and was crucified in your place. God blessed your past tremendously when he washed you clean at your baptism - giving you faith and forgiveness in Christ. He has blessed you by keeping his Holy Spirit in your heart through the Word of God. He has continued to keep you strong through His holy Supper. Instead of talking about ME, the most important way you can prepare for your funeral is to think about God’s past in your life.
My friends, isn’t the most important YOU logy we could give to our children - by giving them HIM. Instead of being worried about whether our children inherit our business savvy or our looks or our sense of humor - the most important thing to give them is HIM. What more blessing could you infer upon your children than to tell them about Jesus Christ? This gospel will give them the comfort of knowing that even if their spouse or their mom and dad is no longer present, God is. God will take care of them, just as He took care of you. God will protect them, just as He always has. What more important thing could you give your children - than peace of heart and mind. What a wonderful funeral yours would be!
II. It hopes for the future
Skip forward fifty four years. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die.” It was time for another patriarch to pass away. Talk about a eulogy - wow - today’s eulogizers would have a hay day! Joseph’s life would have made a great movie, wouldn’t it. Joseph’s life played out in such an intriguing way. Here you have a young man who was sold into slavery by his own brothers - betrayed by Potiphar’s wife - only to end up KING of a foreign country and save millions of lives! What a story! What a great man! Instead of getting revenge, Joseph showed nothing but love, honesty, and compassion to his brothers. Like a humble servant, Joseph submitted to God’s will through the thick and the thin and did wonderful things for the world.
We don’t hear anything about the reaction of the Egyptians, but one would have to imagine that they mourned even harder for him than they did for Jacob. He not only saved their country - but he also built Egypt up into a great and powerful country. You would think if anybody wouldn’t have to worry about leaving a legacy, it was Joseph. His name would be forever written in the pages of history as a great savior and a great man. However, it didn’t work that way. A short eight verses later, in Exodus 1, Moses writes, Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. In 400 short years, Joseph went from a hero to an unknown. All that he had accomplished for the Egyptians didn’t matter a lick to them.
Dr. Dobson once told a story about how he had worked real hard with his basketball team in college to win a trophy. Every year that he returned to his school, he would lovingly gaze at the legacy he had left at his school. His trophy hung in the halls of history with his name on it. However, one year before school, he was walking through the halls, and his picture was no longer there. After he did some inquiry, he found out that the school had actually just thrown out some old trophies. Luckily, he was able to get it out of the garbage before they destroyed it. But it made him think, “how quickly our glory fades!”
This really bothers people. It really bothers us. We want to have an impact on the future. And in an arrogant way, we think that we have more control over it than we do. We sit and wonder what will happen to our offspring or spouses when we die. We think that we are providing for them by giving them million dollar policies! We fear that we will be forgotten and not make a “difference” in this world.
But the funny thing was that was of no concern to Joseph. Again, look at what Joseph does in his last days. He didn’t have the Egyptians build a big pyramid in memory of him so that he would be remembered. He didn’t make sure that the scribes had his name written in the annals so that his legacy would continue on. He didn’t even think about ME. Instead, his own eulogy was a literal YOU logy. Again, instead of being concerned about his future legacy and how people would remember him, like his father, he was thinking about his brothers and also about YOU. So that’s what he spoke about. God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” 25 And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.” 26 So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Notice what confidence Joseph spoke with. With words of promise, Joseph promised his sons and grandchildren that God would SURELY come to their aid, take them out of Egypt and bring them back to the Promised Land! Why was this so important? Because Jacob had promised Judah in 49:10 that The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. The Israelites were known as God’s CHOSEN people through whom the Lord would send Shiloh - peace. The same ANGEL who redeemed Israel would REDEEM the world when He - Jesus Christ - would take on flesh and blood. This Savior would gather all of the true Israelites to him. But this would not happen until God returned a remnant to Canaan. And so as a reflection of his hope, Joseph made them PROMISE to take his bones out of his Egyptian coffin on the way up to Israel. Later on, when the Israelites left Egypt - they did just that. Instead of facing the future with tears and uncertainty, Joseph looked forward to the future when his descendants would take over the Promised Land and the Savior would be born. This is what he wanted to convey to his children - HOPE FOR THE FUTURE!
Isn’t this just another great YOU logy? All the Egyptians could do at a funeral was to weep for 70 days and embalm a body with the hope that it would be preserved. We weep, just as Joseph wept at his father’s funeral and Jesus wept at Lazarus’ grave. But on top of the sorrow, we carry a deep seated hope within our souls - through the promise of Jesus Christ - who said to Martha in John 11, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” When we talk about our past in Christ, instead of mourning over our sinful past, we can look forward to the future. Why? Because Jesus lives! And because he lives, he promises us who believe in him an eternity of joy in heaven. We have a sure hope that we will live forever with Christ. We know that just as Joseph’s bones were carried out of the grave to the promised land, so our bones will be carried out of our graves and taken to the promised land. We will - like Jacob - be gathered to “our people” - to meet our fellow Christians - our children and family and friends in heaven. What greater hope and joy could YOU talk about at your funeral!
Conclusion:
Someone once said, “if you want to plan your life, think about your eulogy, and then go backwards.” What would you want people to say about you at your death? Remember about you? People are usually then encouraged to “make a legend of themselves.” However, there are two important truths that someone else once said.
The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.
Man’s way leads to a hopeless end. God’s way leads to endless hope.
What do you want people to remember about you at your funeral? Here’s something different - instead of talking about you, how about talking about what God did with you - that you were baptized? How about that God loved you? How about that Jesus died for you? How about that the Holy Spirit gave you faith? Wouldn’t this be the greatest eulogy you could have? Amen.
