Genesis 49:27-50.26

[alon]

This Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Genesis 49:27-50.26
Haftara- Zechariah 14:1-1

D’rash: “The story of Ya’akov is the story of the character of Israel. The Jews prevail in the same sense Ya’akov did against the messenger. They don’t give up, and God blesses that. And throughout we see the family bonds that cannot be broken; between Yitzchak and Ya’akov, even after he tricked his father; and between Ya’akov and Esav even after the stolen blessing.” Dr Eli of the Israel Bible Center. This does not mean however that everything was good in the families or the tribes: Genesis 49: 28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. As we said last week, these blessings apply to the tribes that come from these men as to the men themselves. Ancient blessings recorded in scripture were prophetic. There are parallels in Deu ch. 33 and in Judg 5, though these were not strictly prophetic blessing they looked back to the blessings in many ways. Take the ‘blessing’ of Reuben:
Genesis 49:3-4 “Reuben, you are my firstborn,
    my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,
    preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,
    because you went up to your father's bed;
    then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
Reuben, as firstborn should have a double portion in biblical history. Yet the tribe of Reuben has left little mark. Indeed by the time of Moshe the tribe is small and close to extinction:
Deuteronomy 33:6  “Let Reuben live, and not die,
    but let his men be few.”

There was a reverence in the death of Ya’aqov, similar to what was seen in the funeral of Queen Elizabeth this week:
Genesis 49:29-33 Then he commanded them 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 at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying 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 in it were bought from the Hittites.” When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.
This passage actually starts in Gen 48:22 when Ya’aqov sits up in bed, and ends here in vs. 33 when he draws up his knees and dies. Everything in between amounts to what we’d call Ya’aqov’s last will and testament.
Hebrews 11:21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. Ya’akov, who’d lived in faith, died in faith. He directs his sons to bury him in “the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite” As a patriarch of Yisroel he can be buried nowhere else.

Genesis 50:2—3 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
This follows Egyptian burial ritual. Jewish law would later forbid embalming. It is not known if there was oral law against it at the time, but likely something would be said about being buried in a state you can return to dust, based on: Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 50:7-14 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim [mourning (or meadow) of Egypt]; it is beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
Any route that went by way of the threshing floor of Atad likely would take them by the route through Transjordan taken much later by the young tribes of Hebrews entering ha’eretz Yisroel. We are not told why they did not take a more direct route from Mitzrayim, around Gulfs Suez and Aqaba; but it dovetails with the prophetic, interwoven nature biblical events. Indeed, without studying maps of Ha’Eretz and the Mideast it would not be apparent that this anomaly even existed. But this is the kind of thing that made the ancient rabbonim sit up and take notice as important indeed!

In vs. 11 the Canaanites say “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Contrast the more simple Jewish burial customs with these more elaborate customs of the Egyptians. Apparently there is nothing wrong with a more elaborate burial. In fact, the Talmud derives the tradition of shiv’ah, or sitting shivah from v. 10. But we need to keep this all in perspective. Only the bones will carried up: 1 Timothy 6:7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. All we have from this life is what we’ve done for Menat Helqi, The Portion Of My Inheritance (Ps 16:5): Revelation 22:12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.

Genesis 50:15-17 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. The brothers obviously lied. They transferred their own character flaws onto Yoseph, thinking he’d act as they would if in his place. And so they were afraid. After all, they’d sold him into slavery, and they’d seen him enslave the Egyptians.

Genesis 50:18-21 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. But Yoseph had the forgiving character of El Channun, the Gracious God (Jonah 4:2), as would later be given to His people as a commandment: Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. Yoseph adheres to this principle, even though Torah was not yet given. It’s possibly from the Oral Torah, or his own nature. Either way it is a type of YHVH-Shalom, God is Peace (Judges 6:24)

Genesis 50:24-25 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” The Hebrew here is “פּקדִ יפקד pakod yifkod”- will take notice/have taken notice. It literally reads “to visit he shall visit.” Translated “will surely visit” in most English versions, a better translation is from the JPS TNK: Gen 50:24b “I am about to die. God will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land to the land that He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Ex 3:16 uses very similar language- "פּקד פּקדתּי pakod pakodati, I have taken notice," when Moshe is given the charge to go to the elders of Yisroel and tell them he is sent by the God of their fathers.

Again, as one of the patriarchs of Yisroel, his bones could not rest anywhere else but Machpelah. As was his faith and trust in God, so would be done for him

Mekorot: All scripture from the ESV unless otherwise specified; JPS Study TNK; Drs Eli and Parker of the Israel Bible Center: W Wiersbe; my father and others

Next Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Ex 1:1-2:25
Haftara- Is 27:6-13

* Apostolic references will be given in the darashot