Joseph received permission from Pharaoh to bury Jacob in Canaan as he had requested. He then assured his brothers of his favor in spite of how they had treated him and testified that God would fulfill His promises.
Jacob again expressed his faith in God's promises that Canaan would be the Israelites' homeland by requesting burial in the Cave of Machpelah near Hebron (cf. 47:29-32; 48:21-22). He died peacefully and was "gathered to his people"(i.e., reunited with his ancestors, implying life after death, in the place of departed spirits). Jacob was 147 when he died (47:28).
Joseph evidently had Jacob's body preserved as a mummy (50:2).942
Jacob's elaborate funeral was probably due both to the high regard in which the Egyptians held him as Joseph's father and to the Egyptians' love of showy funeral ceremonies (vv. 7-10).943It is the grandest state funeral recorded in the Bible, appropriate since Jacob's story spans more than half of Genesis. The Egyptians mourned for Jacob just two days less than they normally mourned the death of a Pharaoh.944
The record of Jacob's burial in the land is important to the purpose of Genesis. God had promised the land to Abraham and had given the patriarchs small portions of it. The faith of these men that God would fulfill His promises and do for their descendants all that He had promised is obvious in their view of Canaan as their homeland. They counted on the future faithfulness of God who had proved Himself faithful to them personally during their lifetimes.
The words of Joseph's brothers may or may not have been true (vv. 16-17). Jacob may have left such a message even though Moses did not record it in Genesis. Since Moses did not record it, he probably intended the reader to conclude that Jacob had not.
Joseph's response to his fearful brothers reveals his attitudes toward God and them (vv. 18-21). He humbled himself under God's authority. He regarded God as sovereign over him and the One who had providentially guided all the events of his life. He knew that God's purposes for him, his family, and all people were good (cf. chs. 1-2). Consequently he behaved with tender compassion toward his brothers. Genesis opened with a couple, Adam and Eve, trying to become like God. It closes with a man, Joseph, denying that he is in God's place.945Judas was to Jesus what Joseph's brothers were to Joseph.946
"The sequence of deceptions that causes this family so much suffering finally comes to an end when Joseph chooses not to take revenge on his brothers."947
"Each sentence of his threefold reply is a pinnacle of Old Testament (and New Testament) faith. To leave all the righting of one's wrongs to God (19; cf. Rom. 12:19; 1 Thes. 5:15; 1 Pet. 4:19); to see His providence in man's malice (20; cf. on 45:5); and to repay evil not only with forgiveness but also with practical affection (21; cf. Luke 6:27ff.), are attitudes which anticipate the adjective Christian' and even Christlike.'"948
"Behind all the events and human plans recounted in the story of Joseph lies the unchanging plan of God. It is the same plan introduced from the very beginning of the book where God looks out at what he has just created for man and sees that it is good' (tob, 1:4-31). Through his dealings with the patriarchs and Joseph, God had continued to bring about his good plan. He had remained faithful to his purposes, and it is the point of this narrative to show that his people can continue to trust him and to believe that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose' (Rom 8:28)."949
Joseph lived to see God's blessing on his children's children. He died 54 years after Jacob's death when he was 110 years old.950Many Egyptian texts refer to 110 as the ideal life span.951
Joseph probably could have experienced burial in a pyramid or had some other grand burial in Egypt. However, he wanted his family to embalm him and place his body in a coffin in Egypt. Later descendants could bury him in the Promised Land near Shechem. They did so in the parcel of land his father had bought and given to him, perhaps under Abraham's oak (48:22; cf. Josh. 24:32). This expression of Joseph's faith in God's promises to his forefathers provides a fitting climax for the Book of Genesis.
"The outstanding feature of Joseph's life was faithful loyalty to God under all circumstances."952
"The story of Joseph illustrates patient faith and its reward. It ends the book of Genesis and brings its theme to a literary climax. . . . But the story of Joseph shows us that the road to victory, dominion, mastery, and judicial authority, is through service, the humble service of a slave. Through service and suffering, God purges and destroys indwelling sin in the believer (not completely, but sufficiently), builds character in him, and fits him for the mastery of the world."953
"The Book of Genesis, like the Old Testament in microcosm, ends by pointing beyond its own story . . . . Joseph's dying words epitomized the hope in which the Old Testament, and indeed the New (cf. Rev. 22:20), would fall into expectant silence: God will surely visit you."954
Believers who trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to bless in His own inscrutable ways will demonstrate their faith in the way they die.
