The Book of Genesis
Part 96
Chapter 47:27 - 48:22
Come and see how a Christian dies,” cried the Communist captor of a servant of God who had lived in their country as a witness and who was now to die in their country as a martyr. That day the people of China saw a Christian die in perfect submission to the will of God and in graciousness and dignity before the world.
The story of Joseph that we have been following, in great part closes here and the Spirit of God resumes the history of Jacob. The account of Joseph’s experience in Egypt was necessary only to explain how Israel came to be in Egypt. The Genesis narrative now returns to the main subject, Jacob.
God gave to Jacob seventeen years in which he enjoyed the presence and the prestige of his son. One can only imagine the pleasure that this relationship afforded him during his declining days. The rehearsal of experiences by Joseph would result in both sadness and delight in the heart of his father. Parental admiration would be a great stimulant in Jacob’s old age.
Furthermore, Jacob not only enjoyed the provision which he received in Egypt but also the development and the increases of his family. “They had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied.” Although the Lord eventually had to expell Israel from Egypt, in the early years in that land God developed and prepared them for nationhood. They entered Egypt as a family; they left so increased that they were ready to be constituted a nation.
Preparation for Death
Jacob began to sense that his sojourn in time was near its end, and in talking over the matter with his son, he testified of God’s goodness, made arrangements for his burial, and invoked a patriarchal blessing upon Joseph’s children.
His testimony: In reviewing his life as he blessed Joseph’s sons, Jacob said, “God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day; The angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads” (Gen. 48:15-16).
There is a marginal reading of this verse which says, “God who shepherded me all my life long.” To shepherd is to lead, to heed, and to feed. Here Jacob acknowledges that God had done all these for him. Our critical attitude would consider this patriarch, at certain points of his history, a wandering sheep, and in all probability he did so himself. What a testimony to the patience and the faithfulness of the Lord! Psalm 23 had not been composed in Jacob’s day, but he knew the sentiments expressed in it.
His arrangements: In these closing conversations of Jacob and in his final arrangements, there appear two statements which naturally arrest the attention; the first is, “I will lie with my fathers;” the second, “I am to be gathered unto my people” (Gen. 49:29). Obviously the first one has to do with the burial of his body; but, we may ask, is there not more than this implied by the second?
Joseph vowed to his father that his remains would be laid with those of his predecessors in the cave that was in the field of Ephon the Hittite, at Mamre, in the land of Canaan. Jacob’s removal, even in death, from Egypt and his return, even in that state, to Canaan were in anticipation of the return of his descendants to Canaan; in fact, it was a token of their exodus from Egypt and their conquest of Canaan.
It would seem that in the second clause to which reference has been made, there is a hint of Jacob’s belief in immortality. In reading his statement one is reminded of the words of the Lord Jesus, “…the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:37-38).
Jacob believed his people to be still living, and that he in passing from these scenes of time would be assembled with them. Job who probably lived in those patriarchal days has clearly stated his belief not only in immortality but in resurrection: “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me” (Job 19:25-27).
The Patriarchal Blessing
In the New Testament the Holy Spirit gives a very pleasing commentary upon one of the last acts of Jacob’s life: “By faith Jacob when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff” (Heb. 11:21).
One in reading the Genesis record of Jacob’s life does not find much that could be defined as an act of faith. Early in his life he deceived his brother Esau; later he devised self-advantageous schemes in his service with Laban; and, later still he attempted to bribe Esau. Nevertheless, God who knows the heart records that at the close of his life he did act in faith.
It probably is rash to say that this was the only act of faith in all his experience, even although it is the only one left on record. Notwithstanding, there are lessons for all from this solitary statement. It was when the natural man was deteriorating that he arose to higher altitudes in the spiritual realm.
Jacob acted in faith after a life of discipline in the school of God; after God had dealt with him in numerous ways, it is said that he actually worshipped. It is certainly true that the repression of the old nature and the ascendancy of the new, condition the heart for faith and ‘worship.
Jacob ‘blessed the two sons of Joseph as if they were his own immediate children. He said, “Ephraim and Manasseh, … are mine as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine” (Gen. 48:5).
Indubitably Jacob now realized that it was not his deception that secured for him the blessing of his father but the purposes of God. An overruling Providence had executed the divine will despite human impatience and sin. In all probability the remembrance of the past impelled him to rely wholly upon divine guidance as he crossed his hands and blessed Ephraim and Manasseh making the elder subservient to the younger.
There can be no greater attainment in a Christian’s life than what is here stated concerning Jacob: he acted in faith, he worshipped God, and he blessed others. Here we have implicit faith, reverential hope, and objective love. According to Hebrews 10:19-25, these are the three Christian graces which flourish within the veil. In this cold world they are soon blighted and wither, but inside the veil, their own climate, they bloom in all their moral loveliness.
The Thessalonians manifested these graces very early in their spiritual experience, and with the passing of time the Apostle Paul wanted them to increase and abound more and more in these. He knew that the true evidence of the reality of Christianity in the world today is a manifestation of these in the believer’s behaviour. “Now abideth faith, hope, and charity; but the greatest of these is charity (love)” (1 Cor. 13:13).