GENESIS 50 - The End of the Beginning

Introduction

(Read Genesis 50:7-15)

So with this sermon we come not only to the end of the account of Joseph, but also to the end of the Book of Genesis. Have you ever read a novel and then, after reading the whole story, gone back to the first page just to see how far the plot traveled and how much the characters have changed? Doing that with the Book of Genesis is a striking exercise.

Genesis Chapter 1 is the account of God creating the heavens and the earth and filling it with life—the sky, the land, the sea, all filled to overflowing with living creatures and thriving plants and trees. And God saying at every turn, “This is good!”

Then you turn to Chapter 50, and what is this chapter about? Funerals. Seven times in Genesis 1 God says that His creative work is good. Seven times in Genesis 50 we read the word “bury” or “buried”—burying Jacob, burying Joseph. Genesis 1 is written in the light of God’s perfect, glorious creative light; Genesis 50 is written in the shadow of death. It begins with the death of Jacob and Joseph’s heartbroken mourning:

Genesis 50:1 LSB

Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him.

And it ends with Joseph himself lying dead in his casket:

Genesis 50:26 LSB

So Joseph died at the age of 110 years; and they embalmed him, and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

There is another account situation between these two funerals, and it is one of the most important resolutions of the narrative tension that has existed from the very first verses of this account from Chapter 37—the final reckoning between Joseph and the men who threatened him, hated him, premeditated his murder, sold him into slavery and robbed him of his relationship with Jacob his father: His eleven brothers.

There is an immediacy about this account before us this morning in God’s Word—this is a situation that far too many of us have firsthand experience with. How many families do you know where the death of the “patriarch” or “matriarch” signaled the breakup of the family?

You know what I mean—Grandma or Grandpa was the “glue” that held the family together. As long as they were alive, they were the center of family activities: holidays, birthdays, special occasions were always anchored by their presence. The family seemed to get along, everyone was cordial and pleasant.

But then, when that head of the family died, everything changed. All the old resentments came out, all the long-buried grudges came back, old scores came out to be settled. Fights over grandma’s jewelry, bitter arguments at family get-togethers, rifts between siblings and cousins, backstabbing, betrayals, the whole spectacle. Every hurtful word, every selfish deed, every slight and every insult of the past is dragged back up to fuel the fight

This broken world that we live in runs on envy, and it is sunk in a prison of guilt. And it is Joseph’s brothers’ prison of guilt that they have been living in for decades that causes them to be so afraid of Joseph after their father’s death. As we will see in this passage, the wicked deeds of their past came rushing back on them through the course of these events to dismay and upset them:

Genesis 50:15 LSB

Then Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, and they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and returns back to us all the evil which we dealt against him!”

The story of Genesis is the story of YHWH’s beginning His plan to restore His good creation from the terrible consequences of Adam and Eve’s guilt—the guilt that sunk the entire creation into shame and regret and loss and bitterness. The guilt that tore Adam’s family apart as his son Cain killed his brother Abel; the jealousy and rivalry that cast Ishmael out of Abram’s family; Esau’s despising his birthright and the rift it caused between him and his brother Jacob; the envy and bitterness that destroyed Joseph’s relationship with his brothers.

God promised Abraham that one of his descendents would be the Seed to bless all the families of the earth—families torn apart by guilt and shame and bitterness, families suffering from the curse of Adam’s sin; families just like ours. Even here in this chapter, God is at work preparing the way for the Seed to come and set His people free from the guilt and shame of their past sins.

Here is what I want us to see in this last chapter of the first book of God’s grand story of redeeming the world from its guilt:

The PAST has no POWER over the heart GOVERNED by God’s GRACE

I want to draw your attention to the stark contrast that exists between the way Joseph looked back on his life with the way his brothers looked back on theirs. Jacob’s funeral as it is described in these verses show us that there were many moments when Joseph and his brothers would have been sharply reminded of their past and all the things that had happened. There are several points in this account where we see the ways Joseph’s brothers were trapped in

I. The PRISON of past GUILT (Genesis 50:15-18)

You can hear the desperation in their voices as they plead with Joseph in Verses 15-18:

Genesis 50:15–18 LSB

Then Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, and they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and returns back to us all the evil which we dealt against him!” So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph, “Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they dealt evil against you.” ’ So now, please forgive the transgression of the slaves of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your slaves.”

We don’t have any record elsewhere of Jacob telling his brothers to “command” Joseph to forgive them; they may have had a conversation like this with their father, or they might have been so terrified of what Joseph was going to do to them that they tried to concoct a story that had the force of saying “Dad would have wanted it this way!” (a popular tactic used by descendants fighting over the inheritance...)

Joseph’s brothers were deeply afraid of their guilt concerning Joseph coming back on them. And that guilt crippled their hearts in some specific ways in this account. Look back at the end of Chapter 49 and the beginning of Chapter 50, where we read of the moment of Jacob’s passing:

Genesis 49:33–50:2 LSB

So Jacob finished commanding his sons. And he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

Note that all of the sons were gathered around their father’s death-bed—but only Joseph is recorded as weeping or showing any emotion over Jacob’s death. His brothers knew that Joseph’s tears and heartbreak at that moment was in part caused by the way they had robbed him of his relationship with his father—he had lived his entire adult life not having his father in his life, and it was their fault!

You see when you are imprisoned by the guilt of your past,

Your heart cannot know COMPASSION (cp. 49:33-50:2)

Joseph’s brothers could not see anything in Joseph’s tears besides their own guilt—there was no compassion for their brother’s grief, and apparently not much grief over their father’s death. It’s important to note that the task of arranging for their father’s burial should have rested with his eldest son Reuben, but as we have seen (and as Jacob himself said in Chapter 49), he had lost his place as head of the family.

The brothers apparently stood by silently while Joseph mourned and kissed his father, all they could think of was how much Joseph must hate them right now.

And then in the days that followed Jacob’s death, Joseph sets the wheels in motion for an absolutely massive procession of mourning to go back to Canaan to bury his father:

Genesis 50:4–9 LSB

Then the days of weeping for him were past, and Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am about to die; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” So now, please let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’” And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.” So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the household of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household; they left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen. There also went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very immense camp.

Once again we have a rather poignant moment as we read this account, considering that it is Moses who wrote this book. He writes about Pharoah’s glad cooperation as the clan of Israel left Egypt, sending his best chariots and horsemen as a military honor guard for the children of Israel as they journeyed (Moses having survived being pursued by chariots and horsemen that were swallowed up by the Red Sea as they escaped the wrath of the Pharoah of his day!)

But imagine Joseph’s brothers as they traveled back to Canaan watching their brother they had tormented—a prince of Egypt, commanding chariots and horsemen and noblemen of the realm. The Egyptians made such a lamentation over Jacob’s death when they got to Canaan that the Canaanites named the threshing floor where they camped Abel-Mizraim— “The Mourning of Egypt” (v. 11)

What did Joseph’s brothers think as they saw his power and authority and honor he had amongst the Egyptians? “He could crush us like a bug...” This is another way that living in the prison of your past guilt cripples you:

You live in constant ANXIETY (cp. 50:4-9)

At any moment, Joseph could simply order those charioteers to slice through them like a hot knife through butter. Or he could send soldiers to their homes in the middle of the night and drag them off into slavery. This is what guilt does to you—you are constantly hounded by the thought that something is going to happen to you because of what you have done; you become anxious and fearful, you cannot trust anyone or let your guard down for a moment. Guilt over your past sins will eat away at your peace of mind until all you can think about is when the hammer is going to fall.

In Verses 12-13 the procession comes back to the family burial ground—this is the first time that Joseph has been back in Canaan since he was seventeen years old, and he was back to bury his father:

Genesis 50:12–13 LSB

Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them. Indeed, his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field for his possession as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.

What was it like for Joseph to come back for the first time to the home he had been torn away from, the home he had longed for, the place that he had been homesick for for so long? The Scriptures don’t tell us what was going through his mind, but in light of his brother’s fears later in the chapter we can have a pretty good idea of what they were going through as they watched their powerful brother walk through his childhood home— “He has to be hating us right now”.

This is another way that the prison of past guilt cripples you—

You cannot escape your CRIMES (cp. 50:12-13)

Every step that the family took closer to their old home, every turn in the road that revealed the old surroundings and the memories attached to them, was another reminder of how they had tormented Joseph, how they “could not speak to him in peace” (Gen. 37:4).

When you are trapped in that prison of your past guilt, everything reminds you of what you have done; and there are usually two different ways you try to deal with it—either you try to shift the blame to others, saying they are the ones at fault, they made you do what you did, or it was really their sins against you that are the problem and you are innocent—one way or another, you try to offload that guilt onto others.

Or the other strategy is to lean in to that guilt and double down, saying that it isn’t something to be ashamed of after all—that your behavior wasn’t (or isn’t) something to be guilty about; that it is everyone else that is trying to put you on a guilt trip or judge you or be hateful toward you because your behavior is actually good and honorable, and everyone else is wrong.

Joseph’s brothers did not have that option, though—they realize now that they were wrong to hate Joseph as they did; they were wicked in their treatment of him. They had just been back to the old homelands where they had hated Joseph because he had a dream that they would bow down to him someday—and here they are in verse 18:

Genesis 50:18 LSB

Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your slaves.”

They had to know—there is no way they could have fallen on their faces before their brother Joseph without thinking of how they had hated him for that dream, and here they are bowing with their faces to the ground before him.

Here in these verses the sons of Jacob have finally come to the end of themselves—they have finally been cornered by the realization that they have sinned against Joseph and against YHWH. You can see this in the way they plead for mercy in Verse 17:

Genesis 50:17 LSB

‘Thus you shall say to Joseph, “Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they dealt evil against you.” ’ So now, please forgive the transgression of the slaves of the God of your father....”

They are no longer hiding, no longer calling themselves “honest men” (cp. Gen 42:19), no longer accusing one another or shifting blame. Listen to how they refer to their behavior:

“The transgression of your brothers...”

“Their sin...”

“They have dealt evil against you...”

And see here how they describe themselves—

“The slaves of the God of your father” (v. 17)—they know that they have no way out of their guilt, that they have sinned against Joseph and the only hope they have is to somehow submit themselves to their father Jacob’s God. Their last words to Joseph in Verse 18 reveal their utter helplessness before him. They were expecting him to retaliate; they were expecting him to rebuke them; they were expecting him to take revenge on them for the crimes they could not escape.

But Joseph did not live in the prison of the past; his life was not defined by what he had suffered; he was not a prisoner of all the evil he had suffered at the hands of his brothers. Starting in Verse 19 we see in Joseph’s response

II. The LIBERTY of present GRACE (Genesis 50:19-21)

Joseph was not living in the prison of his past—he was not defined by what had happened to him; he was defining his actions by what YHWH had done for him! He had spent four decades watching God graciously oversee every element of his life, and had learned to rest in His grace. And in Verse 19 Joseph demonstrates the first blessing of a heart that is governed by God’s grace—when you are resting in His grace in your life,

You can leave JUSTICE to God (v. 19; cp. 1 Peter 2:23)

Genesis 50:19 LSB

But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place?

Consider Joseph’s life in Egypt and the prominence he had risen to as Pharoah’s lieutenant—he certainly was accustomed to passing judgment! His word was law; second only to Pharoah. But he tells his brothers here that he was not in God’s place to mete out punishment or vengeance.

When you have been wronged by someone, there is always the temptation to try to climb into the judgment seat that only belongs to God. God’s judgment isn’t enough—they also need to feel our displeasure at what they’ve done to us. The scales of God’s perfect justice need our thumb on them so that the one that hurt us really gets what she deserves!

But when you are free from the prison of your past through the grace of God, you can rest in God’s justice; you can do what Jesus did as Peter describes it in his first epistle:

1 Peter 2:23 LSB

who being reviled, was not reviling in return; while suffering, He was uttering no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.

Joseph was not trapped in the prison of his past—he was walking free in the grace of YHWH toward his brothers. When you walk free like this you can leave justice to God, and

You can rest in God’s PROVIDENCE (v. 20)

Look at what Joseph says to his brothers in Verse 20:

Genesis 50:20 LSB

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to do what has happened on this day, to keep many people alive.

Joseph doesn’t sugar coat it; he doesn’t look back at the past with rose-colored glasses:

“You meant evil against me...”

He calls their behavior what it is—evil. But then he goes on to say that YHWH is willing and able to even use the evil acts of sinners to accomplish his good purposes!

“...but God meant it for good in order to do what has happened on this day, to keep many people alive.”

Joseph knew that his God perfectly governed every last detail of his life in such a way that even his pain, even his trauma, even the abuse and scorn and hatred that he suffered was not meaningless. It all had a purpose; it was all under YHWH’s Sovereign control, and none of it was wasted!

Joseph could look back on everything he had suffered and rest in the fact that God had been in control all along! He could not hate his brothers for what they had done to him—he could be clear-headed about the evil they had committed, but at the same time he could rest in God’s utter control over even their evil to accomplish His good purposes for them all.

Joseph was not living in the prison of his past—he was living in the liberty of God’s present grace. When you live in light of God’s grace in your life, you can leave justice to God, you can rest in God’s providence, and

You can delight in God’s PEOPLE (v. 21)

Look at Verse 21:

Genesis 50:21 LSB

“So now, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke to their heart.

Joseph was living in the liberty of God’s grace—he was not imprisoned by hatred of his brothers—he was free to love them! That last phrase of Verse 21 is a beautiful statement: Joseph comforted his brothers—the word there in Hebrew seems to have a connection with comfort borne of a change of heart. His brothers had truly repented of their evil against him, and he affirmed that repentance; he nourished it in them.

There was no “Yeah, well we’ll wait and see if you’ve really repented”, no “Well, it’s about time you came around!!” Joseph was genuinely delighted that his brothers had changed their hearts toward him, and he spoke to their heart—he spoke encouragement and strength to them, drawing close to them in real fellowship and genuine love.

It’s been said that refusing to forgive someone who has sinned against you, nursing that unforgiveness and bitterness and anger, is like “drinking rat poison and hoping the other person dies”. To be trapped in the prison of your past is to be constantly drinking the poison, always begrudging and always blaming and always hating the one that hurt you.

But look at the freedom Joseph has in these verses—his brothers were trapped in the prison of their past guilt; Joseph was at liberty in the grace of God.

The past has no power over the heart that is governed by God’s grace. What does God’s Word tell you about your heart this morning? Do you constantly fight back and forth with the guilt you carry over your past, living in a constant state of simmering anxiety, constantly either beating yourself up over your past or doubling down and defending yourself and the things you’ve done? Are you constantly reminded of the ways that you’ve blown it with your spouse, your children, your siblings, your parents, and the memories of those failures keep assailing you and sinking you further into guilt and regret? You need to be set free from the prison of your past guilt.

Or is your prison the memories of the ways you were sinned against? Are you constantly drinking the rat poison of unforgiveness and bitterness, hoping the people who hurt you will somehow die? Is the thought of forgiving those who sinned against you—let alone be able to love them—simply incomprehensible to you? You need to be set free from the prison of your past hurt.

For you trapped in the prison of your past, here is the Good News for you—you have come into the presence of the God Who governs every evil act, Who numbers every tear, Who turns every sinful intent to His good purposes. He has taken the greatest evil ever perpetrated in the history of Creation—the premeditated murder of the sinless Son of God—and turned it into the greatest good that could ever be imagined: The eternal salvation of everyone who comes to Him by faith for the forgiveness of their sins.

Jesus Christ suffered on the Cross all the evil that wicked rebellious humanity could possibly muster; the utterly Innocent Victim Who was betrayed to death by His brothers according to the flesh, the One Who was “A man of sorrows, well-acquainted with grief”, pierced through for your guilt, crushed for your sins, punished for your wickedness.

You can walk away from the prison of your past. When you come to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, He will set you free. Instead of guilt He will give you peace; instead of anxiety He will give you rest, instead of bitterness He will give you compassion, instead of a life shackled to the past He will give you the promise of a life of freedom now and of eternal joy in His presence someday. The past has no power over a life that is governed by His grace. So come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 LSB

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

ADDITIONAL NOTES: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________