R.C. Sproul

And Pharaoh said, go up and bury your father

as he made you swear.

So Joseph went to bury his father, and with him went all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers and his father's house.

Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.

And they went up with him, both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great gathering.

This was a funeral cortege to beat all funeral processions.

It was like a state funeral that not only Joseph's family, but members of the court of Pharaoh and those who were servants of Joseph participated in this journey for the funeral of Jacob.

Funerals can be magnificent occasions.

I mentioned before an unforgettable experience at a funeral I had.

In 1965, I believe it was in January, one of the great leaders of the Western world in the 20th century died.

His name was Sir Winston Churchill.

I was living in Holland at the time, and a couple of friends of mine who were at the university where I was

met with me and we agreed we wanted to go to the funeral of Winston Churchill and so we drove and took the ferry across the English Channel in the middle of the winter and snowing and cold stayed in the YMCA in London got up the next morning for the funeral and there were a million people

on the streets of London in a short few blocks, lined up there to pay their respects to Winston Churchill.

I've never seen anything like it before or since.

All the great heads of state from around the world were there, and they were part of the funeral procession.

First came the horses that brought the carriage containing Sir Winston Churchill, and then the carriage of Lady Churchill, and the bee feeders were all there and so on.

dignitary after another.

There was Charles de Gaulle marching down the middle of the street, Maurice Chamby from the Congo, King Constantine from Spain, Queen Juliana from the Netherlands.

Conrad Adenauer from Germany, all these great world leaders were right there on that street as part of this funeral cortege.