Genesis 50:1–3
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
We come now to the end of Jacob's life, but not to the end of his story. The book of Genesis, which begins with the creation of the cosmos, ends with a coffin in Egypt. It is a story of profound and forward-looking faith. The final chapters of Genesis are dominated by the subject of burial. Jacob makes Joseph swear an oath to bury him not in the glories of Egypt, but in a dusty cave in Canaan. Because the patriarchs understood something that our modern, sentimental Christianity often forgets: faith is not an abstract feeling in the heart. It is a rugged, earthy, tangible confidence in the promises of God that lays claim to real dirt. The patriarchs were promised a land, and though they lived as sojourners and pilgrims, they made sure to purchase their burial plots there.