Peter Barnes: Genesis 49:29-50:14
Sermon Notes: DEATH: THE WEEPING AND THE PROMISES
(Genesis 49:29-50:14)
– here he comes to die, be embalmed, and then be taken back to Canaan for burial.
1. Believers grieve too.
– 49:29-33; 50:1-3. Is it wrong to mourn? Of course not! – Eccles.3:1, 4. When Joy Davidman died in 1960, C. S. Lewis wanted people around him, but he did not want them to talk to him.
– for a pharaoh, the period of mourning was 72 days. As for Joseph and the family, they weep because they love – Rom.12:15.
2. Taking care of the body.
– 50:2-3. Calvin gives Joseph a hard time over not burying Jacob. But how else could Joseph have taken the body to Canaan? It is the same with a burial at sea e.g. the death of three year old Alexander Geddie at sea in January 1864.
– Geddie: ‘The precious dust of our dear child will remain there till ‘the sea give up the dead that are in it’ (this last part from Revelation 20:13).
Death occurs when the spirit is separated from the body (James 2:26). But at the resurrection, they are reunited forever, either in judgment or in blessing.
3. Holding to the promises.
– 50:4-14. Ps.116:15.
(a) Jacob chosen by God – Gen.25:23;
(b) he was a liar and a deceiver – Gen.27:19;
(c) God meets him – Gen.28:12; 31:3; 32:24, 30;
(d) he did not always learn from his earlier sins – Gen.37:3; 42:36-38;
(e) he is prone to self-pity – 47:8-9;
(f) but he was a man of faith – 48:15-16;
(g) he died and is now in glory – Matt.8:11. From election to glory!