R.C. Sproul

Every reason to believe in the integrity of Jesus' Word and His promises are without fail, and we look forward to a personal, visible, and glorious return.

God worked through Pharaoh to bring about his redemptive work of the Exodus.

Pharaoh meant it for evil.

God meant it for good.

God worked through the betrayal of Judas for the atonement of Christ.

God's intent was perfectly righteous.

Judas meant it for evil.

And so we see in this enormously important passage a reaffirmation that God is Lord of history.

And Joseph is saying, even while what you did was evil, God was bringing everything together for good for those who love him.

As we come now to the end of our study of Joseph, I'm going to skip over the 49th chapter of Genesis almost in its entirety, not because I regard it as unimportant.

In fact,

Genesis 49 is one of the most important chapters in the whole book of Genesis because it sets forth the patriarchal blessing that Jacob gives to his sons and serves as a kind of prophetic instrument to the whole future history of the nation of Israel.

And that in itself makes it extremely important.

But because it doesn't have direct bearing on our consideration of the biography of Joseph, I'm going to skip over most of that chapter until we come to verse 29, towards the end of chapter 49, where we read this.

It is said of Jacob, "...then he charged them," that is his sons, "...and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people."

Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abram bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.

There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife.

There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife.

And there I buried Leah.

The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth.