Genesis 80
JACOB’S FUNERAL
(Genesis 50:1-13)
Introduction:
Jacob spoke his last words and breathed his last at the age of 147. Moses expresses Jacob’s death as ‘he returned to his people (ancestors).’
Another way to define ‘death’ is ‘return’. There are more than ten expressions for ‘die’ in the Korean language, the most representative of word is ‘to return’.
In order to go back, you must have the place you started from. It makes no sense to go back without that place. When Joseph confirmed that his father
Jacob had breathed his last breath, he fell down on his face and shed tears. Jacob lived less than his grandfather and father, but he lived 37 years longer
than his son Joseph. Joseph lived to be 110 years old, but Jacob lived to be 147 years old. As he put it, his life was ‘a difficult time,’ but the results were
so beautiful. His son Joseph, who had been thought dead for 22 years, was alive and became the prime minister of Egypt, one of the most powerful
countries at the time. By meeting the son, prime minister, they were able to overcome the long period of famine, and Israel became a great nation in Egypt.
The people of Israel were nomads and lived mainly as strangers.
Most of their houses were tents, but their tombs were very large and important.
1. Jacob’s funeral and tomb
1) Embalming the body for 40 days (Genesis 50:3)
v. 3. taking a full forty days, for that was the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
2) The Egyptians also mourned for seventy days (Genesis 50:3)
3) Buried in a cave in the field of Machpelah according to Jacob's will (Genesis 50:4-13)
2. The meaning of funerals in Israel
1) Explain that the human path is a temporary traveler.
2) Teaching that the afterlife is more important than present life.
3) Explain that this earth is temporary, but the afterlife is eternal.
So many people mobilized for Jacob's funeral. ‘All of Pharaoh’s servants’, ‘the elders of Pharaoh’s palace’, ‘the elders of all the land of Egypt’, ‘Joseph’s entire household and his brothers’, and ‘his father’s household’ were mobilized. Not only that, but chariots, cavalry, and even special forces such as tank units were mobilized. All that remained were children, flocks of sheep, and herds of cattle. This is an emphatic expression that everything has gone up. In other words, the fact that the only people left in Jacob's household were children means that many people attended the funeral. The fact that so many people participated in Jacob's funeral reflects the status that Joseph enjoyed and his achievements so far.
3. The reason for burial in the cave of Machpelah
1) The promised land handed down from their ancestors
2) That place is where the covenant is hidden
(1) Prophet
(2) Priest
(3) Law
(4) Prophecy of the coming of the Messiah
(5) Christ’s completion
Jacob's funeral was so extravagant that it was almost comparable to the Egyptian state funeral. Joseph did not necessarily reject the Egyptian ways.
It seems that the Egyptians tried to make Jacob's funeral as grand as Pharaoh's because Joseph saved them from a famine. When the funeral party went to
the land of Canaan, they held a second funeral in the manner of Canaan. The funeral custom in Canaan was to weep on the threshing floor for a week.
Joseph's seven days of mourning at the threshing floor of Atad after crossing the Jordan River was equivalent to holding another funeral in the Canaanite
manner. He also made it clear to his descendants that the land of Canaan was the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.
4. The funeral announcing the end of physical life and the beginning of a new world
1) Salvation can only be achieved when the soul resides in the body.
2) You can evangelize while your body is alive.
3) Only the work done while the soul was in the body will be rewarded in heaven.
4) The importance of the tomb teaching the glory of resurrection
Conclusion:
Jacob left a will to Joseph and his 12 sons, earnestly and strongly, not to bury him in Egypt, but to bury him in the cave of Machpelah in Hebron.
This was because it was the promised land that God had given to their ancestors. It also meant that his descendants would have to return there someday.
In the early years of his life, Jacob lived a life of pursuing his own ambitions and desires. However, as he became Israel, he came to live holding on to God
and His covenant. Also, as he was holding his own life, he was able to confirm that his life was held in the hands of God, who is greater than all things.
So he was able to become the patriarch of faith. The hand of God, who is bigger than all things in the universe, is with us. I hope that we, too,
will spend the rest of our lives holding on to the covenant God gave us, being held in God's hands, and living for world evangelization.