Meant for Good

An old man sits up in bed. He can hardly see. Two boys stand in front of him, and their father carefully places the older one by the old man’s right hand. But the old man stretches out his arms, crosses them over, and puts his right hand on the younger boy’s head.

Jacob, also called Israel, has lived in Egypt for seventeen years. He is a hundred and forty-seven years old, and he is ill. His son Joseph, governor of Egypt, hurries to his bedside with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, both born in Egypt. Jacob gathers his strength. He remembers how God appeared to him long ago at Bethel and promised that his family would become a great people. “Your two sons,” he tells Joseph, “will be counted as mine, just like Reuben and Simeon.”

So the boys come close, and Jacob crosses his hands. Joseph thinks his father has made a mistake. He takes his father’s hand to move it. “Not so, my father. This one is the firstborn.” But Jacob refuses. “I know, my son, I know.” The younger will become even greater than the older. It keeps happening in Genesis: Isaac instead of Ishmael, Jacob instead of Esau, Joseph instead of his older brothers. God’s choices don’t always follow the usual order. Then Jacob prays over the boys. “The God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has rescued me from all harm, bless these boys.”

Then Jacob calls all twelve of his sons. “Gather round and listen to Israel your father.” His last words to them are honest, and some are hard to hear. Reuben, Simeon and Levi are reminded of the wrongs they did. But Judah, the brother who once offered himself in Benjamin’s place, hears that he is like a lion, and that the sceptre will not depart from him. Jewish readers have heard in that line the royal line of King David; Christians have also heard a promise pointing to the Messiah. Over Joseph, Jacob speaks of a fruitful vine by a spring. Archers attacked him bitterly, yet his bow stayed steady, made strong by the Mighty One of Jacob. Then Jacob asks to be buried in the cave his grandfather Abraham bought, in Canaan. He draws his feet up into the bed, breathes his last, and is gathered to his people.

Joseph throws himself on his father’s face and weeps. Egypt’s physicians embalm Jacob, and all Egypt mourns him for seventy days. Then a great procession, chariots and horsemen and Pharaoh’s officials, travels all the way to Canaan. There his sons bury him in the cave of Machpelah, beside Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah.

Back in Egypt, a cold fear grips Joseph’s brothers. Their father is gone. What if Joseph has only been kind for his sake? What if now he pays them back? So they send him a message. “Before he died, your father asked you to forgive your brothers.” When Joseph hears it, he weeps. His brothers come and throw themselves down before him. “We are your servants.” And Joseph says, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You meant to harm me, but God meant it for good, to save many lives, as he is doing today. So don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforts them and speaks kindly to them. Years later, as Joseph himself is dying, he tells them, “God will surely come to help you, and bring you up out of this land.” And so Genesis ends, with a coffin in Egypt, and a family waiting for God to keep his word.

Jacob’s burial is described in a thoroughly Egyptian way. Genesis says the embalming took forty days and that Egypt mourned for seventy. The Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the fifth century before Christ, wrote that embalmers kept the body covered in natron, a natural salt that dries it out, for seventy days before it was wrapped. Jacob, a shepherd from Canaan, was honoured like a great Egyptian, yet his sons carried him home to the promised land.

Jacob blesses his sons. You’ll find it in Genesis chapters 48 to 50. Joseph’s brothers meant him harm, and Joseph refused to take God’s place as judge. So here’s a question to carry with you. When someone has wronged you, will you trust God with it, and choose to speak kindly?