Lesson 102, Genesis 50 Forgiveness and God's Plan

The Funeral and Burial of Jacob. Gen. 50:1- 9.

English Standard Version (Chapter 50)

50 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 it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. 4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.” Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’ ” 6 And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.”

7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.

9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company.

There definitely was a big “to do” going on in Egypt about the death of Jacob. I would guess even our modern day culture might be a little obsessed about the life of a 147 year old man. Joseph cried as he kissed his father’s dead face. Yes, some cultures really get going with acting out their grief. Doctors did the embalming in Egypt as apparently they had to take care of the bodies they failed to cure. It took longer to embalm than to actually die. death can come in an instant, but embalming takes 40 days. Then there’s the weeping. That takes another 70 days. Dying was as a big deal as any other thing in Egypt. Look how it is today. Archaeologists are still finding more buried Egyptian kings all the time. Dying was big business. But they are not done. They still want to find where Cleopatra is buried. Her tomb still eludes the grave diggers today.

The funeral celebration just got started in Egypt but then it really kicked into high gear at the threshing floor of Atad. see verse 10, 11. We know it to Be “beyond Jordan.” Before they got there, they had done quite a bit of celebrating in Egypt. After the weeping stopped, Joseph felt like he needed permission to bury his dead, so he walks into pharaoh's presence and asks for safe passage out and back into Egypt. Believe me, if he would have permanently left at this time it would have produced a major crisis. He had to come back after the burying. Joseph had become a died in the wool Egyptian, though an Israelite.

All the Israelites left town except their flocks and Children! That is quite a journey to leave behind children. Also going with them back home to the burial cave were chariots and horsemen. It was a nomadic wonder. The words that it was a very great company suggests that this was one heavy production. Nothing light about it. I might add that it carries with it a high degree of intensity.

The Threshing Floor of Atad 50:10-14

The Lexham English Bible (Chapter 50)

10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which was beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful wailing. And he made a mourning ceremony for his father seven days. 11 And when the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, saw the mourning ceremony at the threshing floor of Atad they said, “This is a severe mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel-Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

12 Thus his sons did to him just as he had instructed them. 13 And his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which field Abraham had bought as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite before Mamre.

14 And after burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Chapters 46–50)

Genesis begins with a garden and ends with a coffin. What a commentary on the results of sin in this world! But the Bible ends with a description of a beautiful “garden city” (Rev. 21–22), the home of all who put their trust in Jesus Christ.

There is an interesting meaning to the term “Threshing floor of Atad.” It’s defined as the “floor of the thorn.” This “beat-down” place was literally stomped to flatness, but there was something thorny about it. It was rock hard and thorny, and above all else it was east of Jordan. Here for 7 days they did not have to worry about treading over someone’s grain field. As it were, they went straight to the threshing floor where they would do no harm. The secondary or primary name for this place was Abel-mizraim”, meaning a place in Canaan, a meadow east of Jordan where there was a grievous mourning by the Egyptians. This has something to say about how the seven years of famine brought Jacob and his family together in spirit with the Egyptians. Hated at the outset as shepherds, they now have Egyptians dancing at Jacobs funeral. This kind of camaraderie was rare in the ancient world but probably more rare today.

Jacobs sons were his pallbearers and they buried their dad. There is more burial ceremony news here than most anywhere in the Bible except with Jesus Christ. It is more exact because of the Savior, but final details are what we can cling to. we have the description of His tomb and we know it is empty today. Jacob’s is still populated with a dead body/ bodies. Then, they returned to Egypt for the next 390 or so years. If that happened today to one of us, we would be in Egypt as a clan or family until the year 2413.

English Standard Version (Chapter 50)

15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died:

17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?

20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

In all of the kindness that the brothers had received from Joseph, they are thinking now that dad is gone Joseph is thinking “Off with their Heads! But nothing could be further from the truth. This is a true message of grace and forgiveness. The Phrase “God meant it for good,” appeals to all of us. Just think of Romans 8:28 as it mimics this verse as it echoes the same truth “ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

Joseph Dies and remains in Egypt 50:22- 26

English Standard Version (Chapter 50)

22 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.

I would say the Egyptians did not live as long as the Hebrews. We know from research that their families suffered from inter-marrying, incest, and pagan living. God’s man, Joseph did not live as long as his dad, but 110 is something to crow about. After seeing grandchildren to the third generation, he dies and requests his bones be carried back to Canaan, when God sends His deliverer. Verses 24 and 25 are a prophecy that things are going to change in circumstance and in location.