Joseph Part 23: Jacob's Burial

Jacob’s Burial

So we read the first and the last, the request of Yaaqov to be buried in Canaan. 

We read the narrative fulfillment of it happening and then Yoseph and the brothers coming back. 

And so in the middle is the actual funeral procession. 

Genesis 50:1–11 NASB95

1 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him and kissed him. 2 Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 Now forty days were required for it, for such is the period required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. 4 When the days of mourning for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please speak to Pharaoh, saying, 5 ‘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.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’ ” 6 Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.” 7 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, 8 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. 9 There also went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company. 10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he observed seven days mourning for his father. 11 Now when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore it was named Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

This is chapter 50, verse 1. "And Yoseph fell upon the face of his father, and he wept over him, and he kissed him.

And Yoseph commanded his servants, the healers, to embalm his father.

And the healers embalmed Yisrael.

And they fulfilled for him 40 days, because this is how the days of the embalmers were fulfilled. And Egypt wept for him for 70 days.

And the days of weeping for him passed on. And Yoseph said to the house of Pharaoh, saying, 'If, please, I have found favor in your eyes, speak, please, into the ears of Pharaoh, saying, my father made me swear this oath, saying, "Look, I'm about to die. So in my burial grave that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, bury me there." So may I go up and, oh, may I go up, please, so I can bury my father and so that I can come back.' And Pharaoh said, 'Go up, bury your father, just as he made you swear an oath.'" Fairly straightforward. 

"Yoseph went up to bury his father, and they went up with him, all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of the house, in fact, all the elders of the land of Egypt and all the house of Yoseph and his brothers and the house of his father, well, except for the children and the flocks and the herds; they left them in Goshen. And they went up with him, chariots and horsemen with a camp," like a traveling camp, "that was heavy, very, very heavy.

And they came to the threshing floor of the thorn, and they wept there, a great, heavy weeping, very much. They performed," like perform ritual mournings, in terms of symbol, like, processional clothes, certain wails and chants, and that kind of thing. "For seven days, they grieved.

The inhabitant of the land, which was Canaanites, they saw all of this grieving at the threshing floor of the thorn, and they said, 'What a heavy grieving for Egypt.' In fact, this is the reason why the name of that place is called the Grief or Morning of Egypt," or our translations usually just transliterate it, Avel-Mitsrayim. I will bless you who bless you, it's a full union between the two peoples. and they bury their dead together. They bury the patriarch of Israel in the same way that they would bury, like, a pharaoh.

It's right across from the Jordan River.

And then the next paragraph is, "And they buried him in the cave of the field of " you know, on and on. And then Joseph went back. So Yoseph asked, "Can I go up, bury, and return?" He goes up, he buries, and he returns. 

So it has a nice kind of stair-step structure to it, one thing after another.

You can see that the word "going up" is really prominent here, the ascent. Do you remember at the beginning with Yoseph's many descents?

down to Egypt, and then down into the prison, which he called the pit. When Jacob wonders what happened to his son, what he says is, "When I die, I will go meet him down in Sheol, in the grave." And he does go meet him down in the pit, which is Egypt, in exile. 

Now we have the many ascents of the going up.

So we go up to paradise, to be buried in paradise, as descent and ascent.

So I think this is fairly straightforward. Can I go up and bury? You may go up and bury. So they went up, and they buried. 

Mummies and the Hope of the Afterlife

He was Embalmed

what more famous thing are the ancient Egyptians known for now? 

Egyptian mummies are well-known in our culture as a famous icon of ancient Near Eastern burial practices. In the final chapter of the Genesis scroll, which began with a story about humans losing access to eternal life, it is no accident that we find ourselves focused on a contrast between Yaaqov’s hope in the resurrection and the hope of the afterlife in Egyptian culture.

What's the point of embalming? In Egyptian culture and religion, the afterlife is a big deal. "The Book of the Dead," it's public domain, it's this whole set of rituals about how to make sure when a family member dies, you can bury them with food or items that'll help them in passage to the afterlife. So this is fully on the brain here.

But this is from an Israelite perspective. And so, Yisrael is embalmed to preserve his body in the transition to go up to paradise.

Embalming is about making the body live to prevent its return to the dust, at least to delay its return to the dust. 

“It is well known that mummification, with all its elaborate ritual, played a crucial role in the Egyptian religion and was bound up with the cult of Osiris and conceptions of the afterlife. Survival of death was taken for granted by the Egyptians. Central to this notion was the belief in the importance of the physical preservation of the body. They took meticulous care to prevent the putrefaction of the corpse in order to ensure the right of the deceased to immortality. But the embalming of Jacob and Joseph is without any religious significance. In both cases the act is a purely practical measure, for Jacob is to be buried far from his place of death, and Joseph is to be reinterred many years later (v. 25). The text subtly underlines the disconnection of the embalming procedure from any pagan context by having Joseph entrust the task to 'physicians in his service.' It was not performed by professional mortuary priests. ... Detailed information on the embalming process is lacking for the ancient period, but is available from the 5th century B.C.E. and from the late Hellenistic period. Herodotus (Histories 2.86) reports that the body was placed in niter for seventy days. Diodorus of Sicily (Histories 1.91) describes a thirty-day dressing of the corpse with oils and spices and seventy-two days of public mourning for a king. Jacob is apparently being accorded royal honors.”

Sarna, Nahum M. (2001). Genesis, The JPS Torah Commentary. Jewish Publication Society. 347.

notice, this is the second thing, the prominent role of Egyptians in the burial.

Because remember, he's adopted Egyptians into the family now. So Shem and Ham are really connected here in this generation. And so like these Egyptians, the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of the land of Egypt, all go up. This is like a couple hundred miles. Big camp, chariots and horsemen, I mean, it's like a full-on state funerals?

The Garden-Thorn Place

Notice how the outer sections both feature non-Israelites who participate in the mourning rituals or observe the intensity of grief.

The scene in Genesis 50:1-3 shows the Egyptians honoring Yaaqov with ritual mourning (“they wept”) and with embalming, a custom that would ensure safe and honorable passage into the after life.

The scene in Genesis 50:10-11 takes place right after the procession crosses into the land of Canaan. Here, it’s the Canaanites who observe the intensity of grief taking place among the Egyptians. 

Notice the echoes of Eden in this story.

Yaaqov dies (linking back to the exile from Eden and return to the dust).

They stop at the “threshing floor of the thorn.”

In Hebrew, “threshing floor” is, spelled with its first and last letters identical with the Hebrew word for “garden” (/). goren (גרן)gan  גן

The word “thorn” evokes the curse upon the ground from Genesis 3:17-19, where the land of Adam and Eve’s exile will become a land of “thorns and thistles.” 

This short scene portrays Yaaqov's return to the Eden land promised to Yaaqov as a tragedy. The entire story so far creates a desire for humanity’s return to Eden. And here is Yahweh’s chosen one, finally returning after a long exile in Egypt, and he comes to the “Garden-Thorn” place deceased and unable to enjoy the blessings of Eden.

Notice how the theme of “embalming” and “burial” highlights the ideas of the afterlife as Yaaqov is buried with his ancestors. While there is some comfort knowing that Yaaqov will be reunited with his ancestors upon his death, we are also at the same time disheartened. The hope was for the blessings of Eden to spread outside the garden, and all we have near the end of the Genesis scroll is a dead man returning to an Eden-like place at Makpelah.

threshing floors are often these, you know, these little depressions where, you know, you would dig down into the earth, maybe two feet or so, line it with stone.

And then you throw in typically wheat, and then you have millstones, or you stomp it, or have a ox go down in there, but it crushes and separates wheat from the husk. 

It's associated with the production of abundance and food, and it becomes an Eden place. This is where Boaz and Ruth have their nighttime liaison

And there's a number of other threshing floors.

The temple mount where- There's a plague happening in Jerusalem, and David goes up to offer a sacrifice to stop the plague. And it's at the threshing floor of Orenah, is the guy's name. And Orenah is spelled with the letters of the word for the ark of the covenant. It's the garden ark place. And you're like, oh yeah. And then that's becomes the foundation for the temple spot. So threshing floors have this unique Eden association with them. 

And this is the first time it appears.

And it's the threshing, the garden thorn, the place of the garden thorn.

And you're onto something here with it's both hopeful, but also sad. The thorns, death outside Eden, but the garden.

And here we are, here at the Place of the Garden Thorn. Goren, which looks like the word "Garden," and Ha'atad means "Thorn." So it's both an Eden spot with its promise of life, but a thorn spot with the reality of death. It's both. 

we're back to the land of Canaan, which is supposed to be the birth of an Eden blessing for all the nations. But he's returning there to be buried because he's dead.

It's the Place of the Garden Thorn.

Yoseph Reconciles With His Brothers

Genesis 50:15–21 NASB95

15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father charged before he died, saying, 17 ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph, “Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? 20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. 21 “So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Verse 15. "Now the brothers of Yoseph saw that their father was dead.

And they said, 'Surely Yoseph will become one who opposes us.'" Do you want to guess the word?

Satan. 

"'He will certainly return upon all of us the evil that we repaid him.' So they commanded Yoseph, saying, 'You know, dad called us in for a secret meeting, and he gave this command before he died.

He said, "Make sure you tell Yoseph this, forgive the betrayal of your brothers and their failure because of the evil that they paid you." So please, because, for dad's sake, please forgive the betrayal of your servants, the servants of the Elohim of your fathers.'"

"And Yoseph wept as they spoke." So powerful. Seems like his weeping is like a sadness that they don't really believe that he has forgiven them.

If you've ever tried to be generous and want to forgive somebody, and they can't believe and won't act like you've forgiven them, it's a hard relationship to navigate.

So he wept as they spoke to him, and his brothers went even further. They bowed down. "They fell down in front of him." Look at the bookend of the bowing down. Remember all the way back to chapter 37, and here they are bowing down again, falling down before him, saying, "'Look, we are your servants.' And Yoseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid.

You think I am in the place of Elohim?'"

Kind of, in a lot of the scenes we have seen Joseph be the image of pharoah, which will be temple language used later as the image of God, so yeah kind of.

"'As for you all, you planned evil against me, but Elohim, he planned tov in order to accomplish what has happened. Even today, the preservation of the lives of so many people, your evil was countered by God's plan.

And what you meant for death was actually became a great saving of many lives. So don't be afraid. I got you guys. I will support all of you and your children.' And he brought them comfort, and he spoke to their heart."

Their Plan God’s Sovereignty

The narrative highlights the brothers' evil planning, the premeditation, and all turning up the volume on this portrait of their plan and what they wanted to have happen. 

And then you add this undercurrent that just peeked out a couple times about the dreams. 

In Bible, dreams are often these windows into heavenly reality, so ... And then Yahweh was with him in the prison.  And the man in the field. 

So you have both elements. But what's interesting is the narrative foregrounds both human agency and divine agency, and, you know, they're not in competition, but at the same time it's more that Yahweh has a purpose to elevate a human partner, and the humans thwart the purpose. And so God counters by turning their evil into good. And that's the narrative dynamic. 

evil and good, good and bad. We're all the way back to the first part of the melody of God gives a degree of limited freedom and agency to his human partners. They misuse it. And so, it's just this countering back and forth. 

different Christian traditions have filled out, and tried out every one of how this works out.

And usually it's, you know, it's the balance of how is human agency is preserved in light of this underlying, unavoidable divine agency.

So some would be more toward Calvinist traditions, heavy on sovereignty and we're playing out a script, and we, in our limited conscious abilities, feel like we're free. And so to that degree, we are free, but really, you know, we're playing out the script. 

There would be other models that are often called the ship theory where the destination of where the ship will arrive is certain, but how pleasant or unpleasant the ride is gonna be is determined by the freedom and agency given to the people on the ship. And what happens there is not predetermined, but the goal is. And so there are people that exist there. 

And then the other one would be God's along with us for the ride. But he's the most brilliant chess player, so he's gonna win. But he's discovering how as we go along the way. 

And every mediating in between those. 

who can know such a thing?

And a narrative like this doesn't close down any of those, but it takes us to the edge of the cliff. 

I think what the biblical authors want us to have confidence in is that no matter what, the divine purpose will work itself out and is working itself out. Like, there's nothing we can do that can thwart it. But at the same time, we can fail the test and, you know, create a lot of pain for ourselves and others. And that doesn't mean that God planned it. It's something that I would've planned and am responsible for. 

If you want we can plan a day where we go through multiple interpretations of this. Just let me know because I have to plan it and prep it with charts, LOL

The Reconciliation of the Family

The reconciliation of the brothers is a crucial theme in this scene.

“Abraham had two sons but they did not get on together. Isaac had two sons, but they parted forever. Not until Jacob’s twelve sons was the future firmly established. But precisely because they were a large number was there a danger of disunity and division. In the event there was dissension among them, so that they hated and persecuted the best of them. But eventually there was a complete reconciliation, not through the arbitration of a third party, but through the inner transformation of those who hated, for which the sufferer had waited and now in brotherly love acknowledges.”

Jacob, Benno (1974). The Book of Genesis. Ktav Publishing House. 942.

In appealing to Yoseph for forgiveness, the brothers once again fulfill his dreams and activate the entire pattern of the older son serving the younger son.

Yoseph’s words to his brothers bring together all of the themes of the entire scroll up to this point. God keeps elevating surprising chosen ones to be the vehicle of his Eden-blessing to others. Humans, on the other hand, keep twisting these Eden gifts toward self-advantage, hurting themselves and others in the process. Yoseph’s summary is relevant not just for his brother’s story, but for every generation of the Genesis scroll, which has been replaying the primal folly and evil of the first generations as told in Genesis 1-6.

But God’s purpose is to raise up a promised see who will endure through the hardships of life outside the garden, and whose surrender and suffering becomes a gateway of God’s promise and Eden-blessing for others. Here we find an important forward hyperlink—Yoseph’s “comfort” and “words for the heart” provide the poet of Isaiah 40 with the language to describe the return from Babylonian exile as a similar moment. What God’s own people did for evil, Yahweh is able to counter and use to bring about something good.

“Genesis 46-50 shows how Joseph relates to Genesis’ larger story of creation and covenant. Covenantal … themes emerge quite prominently in Joseph’s story, but only after the reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers. This order is significant. Fraternal conflict has plagued the covenant family and endangered the seed promise as far back as Cain and Abel. Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers, however, triggers an advance in covenant history. … In Joseph, God reverses the status quo of violence against the covenant line. The reconciliation of the family is a demonstration that God is reversing the curse, turning evil in on itself, and advancing his cause in the world.”

Emadi, Samuel (2018). Covenant, Typology, and the Story of Joseph. Tyndale Bulletin, Volume 69.1. 94.