Genesis 50:7–11
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
The book of Genesis, which begins with the creation of the entire cosmos out of nothing, ends with a coffin in Egypt. It is a coffin pointed toward the promises of God. We have just witnessed the death of Jacob, a patriarch whose life was a tangled mess of striving, wrestling, deception, and ultimately, profound faith. Before he died, he made his son Joseph swear a solemn oath. It was not a request for a grand Egyptian pyramid or a monument to his name. We tell amusing anecdotes and try to avoid the raw, uncomfortable fact of death. They were men of faith, which meant they were realists. They knew death was real, but they also knew God's promises were more real. For them, a burial was not primarily about looking backward at a life that was over.