R.C. Sproul

And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Now this, of course, is a poignant moment for Joseph, the death of his beloved father, Jacob.

And Jacob's final instructions are for his resting place.

He wants to be buried with his fathers in Machpelah, which reminds us of one of the great ironies of the patriarchal history.

We remember that this whole drama began when God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees as an old man and sent him to a place he knew not where he was going.

And God promised him that he would be the father of a great nation and his descendants would be as the stars of the sky and of the sands of the sea.

And integral to that promise of the great inheritance was the promise of land, which then became the promised land.

And yet we are told in the New Testament that Abraham went out not knowing where he was going and hoping against hope, trusted in God for his own future and became the father of the faithful.

The irony was this.

The only piece of real estate that Abram ever owned in the promised land was Machpelah, his grave, his cemetery plot.

That was his personal inheritance of the promised land.

And that became more or less a family shrine because Abraham and Sarah were both buried there, Isaac and Rebekah were both buried there, and Jacob's first wife Leah was buried there.

And now as he is dying, he asks that he might join that place where he may enter into his rest

in the presence of the God who would be known in future generations as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And so then Jacob dies, and chapter 50 begins.

And Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him.

And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.

So the physicians embalmed Israel.

Forty days were required for him, for such are the days required for those who are embalmed.

And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.