Year 1, Day 49: Genesis 50

All Good Things Come to an End

The End of Genesis.  At first Genesis 50 seems like such a sad chapter.  Jacob dies.  Joseph dies.  All the people we have been growing to love because of their humanity and because God should grace through them are dead.  Feels a bit like losing a friend, doesn’t it?  I mean, you don’t spend 49 days reading a book without feeling close to the characters – or at least I don’t.  And I hope you don’t either.

Loose Ends

As we close this chapter, we should ask: “Why was it so important for Jacob to be buried in Canaan?  Was it just a family connection?  Was he just adhering to human tradition and wanting to be buried with his father and grandfather?  I mean this as an honest prayer: Dear God, I hope not!  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with family tradition.  But there is something much more at stake here in Jacob’s desire to be buried with Abraham and Isaac than just some human tradition.

Jacob wants to be buried in Canaan because he has finally come to a place in his life where his faith and his spirituality mean something.  God has finally gotten hold of him and Jacob wants to partake in the promise that God has given to his father and grandfather.  His desire to be buried in Canaan is not because his family is there, but because it is the land that God has promised to him, his predecessors, and his offspring.  Canaan isn’t so much the Promised Land as it is the Promise.

By this I mean that to call Canaan the Promised Land puts the emphasis on God’s gift of the land.  Our relationship shouldn’t be about what God gives us in material terms but what God gives us in spiritual terms.  Jacob’s body is going back to Canaan because that’s where God’s promise was given to him and present for him in his life.

The Brothers

Now let’s turn to the brother’s response.  In many respects it is sad to see the brothers still scheming after Jacob dies.  They come to Joseph with a lie.  They tell Joseph about a promise from Jacob when Jacob has really said no such thing.

If nothing else, it can tell us how the world just doesn’t get true forgiveness and repentance.  This is why Joseph weeps.  Joseph sees right through his brother’s scheming.  He sees completely through their plans and their plotting.  Joseph is saddened by what they have to say and how they assume Joseph will treat them.  Joseph is sad because they don’t really “get” faithfulness in God quite yet. 

Joseph’s brothers still want to “work out their forgiveness” from Joseph when Joseph has already forgiven them through grace.  Unfortunately, we get one last reminder of generational sin.  Is this so different than when Jacob was coming back to meet Esau and he sent forward all of the messengers to soften Esau’s heart – which was already forgiving?  Human beings have a difficult time buying into forgiveness by grace without being able to “earn it” or “manipulate the other into forgiveness.”

It is the same with us.  How often do we – even those of us who should know better! – try and work out our forgiveness with God?  How often do we try to bargain with God when we should live confidently knowing that He has forgiven?  Joseph gives us the same response that God gives through Christ: Fear not! 

Our sin is forgiven because Christ has died on the cross.  Repent, therefore, and believe!  What a way to end Genesis!

God Meant for Good

I think Genesis 50:20 is one of my favorite verses.  However, like most inspirational passages I think we take it the wrong way.  It is too easy to get caught up in the promise and lose sight of the truth.

Joseph doesn’t say, “What you guys intended to do me harm God intended for my blessing.”  Joseph isn’t proclaiming some sort of self-centered spirituality here, although that is how we like to take this verse.  We like to hear this verse as God promising to make us prosper when that really isn’t the purpose of it at all.

What Joseph actually says is that it was designed for the salvation of many people.  God brought Joseph to Egypt so that his family would be saved.  What the brothers intended for evil God used so that His will would be accomplished!

Joseph is truly a man of God.  He’s not focused on himself, his own prosperity, or his own success.  He’s focused on the movement of God’s plan.  He’s focused on how God can use anything to accomplish His will.  That’s the greatness of God.  What a man of God Joseph truly is!

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