A christian blog with a decidedly biblical perspective on the world and events around us. Look around, read, enjoy and feel free to comment. Interesting story, send us the info via our contact page. Subscribe by clicking here.
Subscribe to RSS
For let him who wants to enjoy life and see good days (good whether apparent or not), keep his tongue free from evil, and his lips from guile (treachery, deceit).
Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it; and let him do right. Let him search for peace — harmony, undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions and moral conflicts — and seek it eagerly. — Do not merely desire peaceful relations [with God, with your fellowmen, and with yourself}, but pursue, go after them! – The Amplified Bible
1 Chronicles 21:13
And David said to Gad: “I am in great and distressing perplexity; let me fall, I pray, into the Hand of the Lord, for very great and many are His mercies; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”
David learnt through personal experience that it is a terrible thing to fall into the Hand of an angry God. Through disobedience he incurred the wrath of God and was subject to the penalty imposed for his willful actions.
Sadly, his actions caused the same punishment to fall upon his people who were, retro-spectively innocent of his crimes.
If you focus your attention upon the importance of this fact you will note that through similar wrong choices, we too can be the cause of the sorrow and desolation that often befalls those that depend upon us in whichever capacity we are found.
To whom much is given, much will be required.
The liability placed upon the parent, parents, individuals, rulers, presidents or kings, demands precisely the same responsibility.
Your right standing with God and subsequent actions will determine the success or failure of a family, a business, a town, a city, a country and nations.
David realized that the folly of his actions was the direct cause of the destruction of his people, hence his prayer to fall into the hand of God and not into the hand of man.
The true intrinsic nature of man can be disposed to cruelty, mercilessness and arbitrary power. That which man is capable of doing is indescribable and bordering on animalism.
If you are confronted by a situation, which may be self-invoked, or incurred by wrong choices, I would strongly urge you to call upon God, for His mercies are great and many; repentance, humbleness and acknowledgement of your iniquities will transform your situation.
The abused wife, the children, the betrayed, the prisoners, presidents, kings or governments will experience the demonstration of God’s power as he breaks the arm raised against you, puts hedges about those whose lives are endangered, disables military powers or confuses and turns backwards the armies of the world and causes the mighty to lose their strength.
He delivers you from injustices and perversion thereof, and causes the pursuer not to overtake you or the seeker not to find you.
If God sweeps in and arrests and calls into judgment, who can hinder Him? If He be against a man, who shall call Him to account for it?
Set your heart aright, change your mind and your attitude and repent, turn to God and keep on turning to Him that you may forget your misery as it is swept away like waters and washed in the ocean of forgiveness.
Stop dwelling in the past, look ahead and focus your attention upon Jesus as the dawn of a new life is upon your horizon, make your choice for it is time to choose. – Sage
Psalm 118:17
I shall not die, but live, and declare the works and recount the illustrious acts of the Lord.
David was confronted by imminent death many times, being constantly pursued by Saul and his armies, the giant Goliath and the battles he fought for the Lord. Death followed close in his footsteps and there remained the constant threat of impending doom shadowing him.
Nevertheless, he was a great strategist and a mighty warrior, a man of war who confronted every threat with personal bravery. For all this, he remained a king without a crown, reduced to fleeing from cave to cave and the surrounding countries, pretending at times to be insane to achieve his specific goals.
This great king knew that he was personally chosen by God, anointed by Samuel, the prophet and was then forced to commence with his Kingship by fleeing for his life.
He had strength of mind, strength of heart and strength of spirit, and he still found it necessary to pray this prayer, “I will not die, but live…”
He continues to pray, in the next verse; “The Lord has chastened me sorely, but He has not given me over to death.”
David was human and made mistakes as we do, therefore his transgression was of such a nature that the Lord chastened him sorely. We would do well to consider the condition of our own lives and pray this prayer too.
How often have we been guilty of confessing death over ourselves and possibly over our loved ones without realizing the dangerous position we place ourselves in? The words slip out so easily, “I wish I was dead, or whoever offends us at the time, or the most often heard, “I want to go home” etc. etc.
This is tantamount to a self-invoked curse or self-destructive confessions, giving legal authority for our lives to be taken. In the light of this, we must consider, with urgency, to bind and disannul these negative confessions that we have made.
If you read Psalm 91: 14 to 16, it may give a deeper insight to God’s thoughts on the subject of life, i.e. “Because he has set his love upon Me, I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My Name (has a personal knowledge of My Mercy, love and kindness, trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no never. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver and honour him. WITH LONG LIFE I will satisfy him, and show him my salvation.”
God surely knows the brevity of our life span, and frankly, I am of the opinion that we, ourselves determine the prolongation thereof by our conduct, in meeting His terms and conditions or not. Anger, bitterness, unforgiveness and jealousy appear to be the greatest hindrances that we impose upon ourselves.
One of the rare moments that believers or unbelievers alike even think upon the prospect of death as being a reality is when attending a funeral. The stark, naked reality of the departed person momentarily forces one to confront the fact that death is inevitable.
To a reborn believer, death is not finality, but the profound knowledge that we live and die in Christ with confidence that as He was resurrected from the dead, we too, will be.
Proclaim to the ends of the earth, that you will not die, but live, and declare the works and recount the illustrious acts of God.
Cease from procrastination, right all the wrongs and pour out your heart like water before God, for He hears and answers every prayer, take hold of the STRENGTH OF HIM, WHOSE STRENGTH FAILS NOT, and live….. – Sage
And I will do — I Myself will grant — whatever you may ask in My Name [representing all that I AM] so that the Father may be glorified and extolled in (through) the Son. [Exodus 3:14} – The Amplified Bible
Genesis 50:22-26
22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father’s house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. 23 And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph’s knees. 24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. 26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Here is, I. The prolonging of Joseph’s life in Egypt: he lived to be a hundred and ten years old, v. 22. Having honoured his father, his days were long in the land which, for the present, God had given him; and it was a great mercy to his relations that God continued him so long, a support and comfort to them.
II. The building up of Joseph’s family: he lived to see his great-grand-children by both his sons (v. 23), and probably he saw his two sons solemnly owned as heads of distinct tribes, equal to any of his brethren. It contributes much to the comfort of aged parents if they see their posterity in a flourishing condition, especially if with it they see peace upon Israel, Ps. cxxviii. 6.
III. The last will and testament of Joseph published in the presence of his brethren, when he saw his death approaching. Those that were properly his brethren perhaps were some of them dead before him, as several of them were older than he; but to those of them who yet survived, and to the sons of those who were gone, who stood up in their fathers’ stead, he said this.
1. He comforted them with the assurance of their return to Canaan in due time: I die, but God will surely visit you, v. 24. To this purport Jacob had spoken to him, ch. xlviii. 21. Thus must we comfort others with the same comforts with which we ourselves have been comforted of God, and encourage them to rest on those promises which have been our support. Joseph was, under God, both the protector and the benefactor of his brethren; and what would become of them now that he was dying? Why, let this be their comfort, God will surely visit you. Note, God’s gracious visits will serve to make up the loss of our best friends. They die; but we may live, and live comfortably, if we have the favour and presence of God with us. He bids them be confident: God will bring you out of this land, and therefore,
(1.) They must not hope to settle there, nor look upon it as their rest for ever; they must set their hearts upon the land of promise, and call that their home.
(2.) They must not fear sinking, and being ruined there; probably he foresaw the ill usage they would meet with there after his death, and therefore gives them this word of encouragement: “God will bring you in triumph out of this land at last.” Herein he has an eye to the promise, ch. xv. 13, 14, and, in God’s name, assures them of the performance of it.
2. For a confession of his own faith, and a confirmation of theirs, he charges them to keep him unburied till that day, that glorious day, should come, when they should be settled in the land of promise, v. 25. He makes them promise him with an oath that they would bury him in Canaan. In Egypt they buried their great men very honourably and with abundance of pomp; but Joseph prefers a significant burial in Canaan, and that deferred too almost 200 years, before a magnificent one in Egypt. Thus Joseph, by faith in the doctrine of the resurrection and the promise of Canaan, gave commandment concerning his bones, Heb. xi. 22. He dies in Egypt; but lays his bones at stake that God will surely visit Israel, and bring them to Canaan.
IV. The death of Joseph, and the reservation of his body for a burial in Canaan, v. 26. He was put in a coffin in Egypt, but not buried till his children had received their inheritance in Canaan, Josh. xxiv. 32. Note,
1. If the separate soul, at death, do but return to its rest with God, the matter is not great though the deserted body find not at all, or not quickly, its rest in the grave.
2. Yet care ought to be taken of the dead bodies of the saints, in the belief of their resurrection; for there is a covenant with the dust, which shall be remembered, and a commandment is given concerning the bones.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Genesis 50:15-21
15 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. 16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, 17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. 18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. 19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. 21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
We have here the settling of a good correspondence between Joseph and his brethren, now that their father was dead. Joseph was at court, in the royal city; his brethren were in Goshen, remote in the country; yet the keeping up of a good understanding, and a good affection, between them, would be both his honour and their interest. Note, When Providence has removed the parents by death, the best methods ought to be taken, not only for the preventing of quarrels among the children (which often happen about the dividing of the estate), but for the preserving of acquaintance and love, that unity may continue even when that centre of unity is taken away.
I. Joseph’s brethren humbly make their court to him for his favour.
1. They began to be jealous of Joseph, not that he had given them any cause to be so, but the consciousness of guilt, and of their own inability in such a case to forgive and forget, made them suspicious of the sincerity and constancy of Joseph’s favour (v. 15): Joseph will peradventure hate us. While their father lived, they thought themselves safe under his shadow; but now that he was dead they feared the worst from Joseph. Note, A guilty conscience exposes men to continual frights, even where no fear is, and makes them suspicious of every body, as Cain, ch. iv. 14. Those that would be fearless must keep themselves guiltless. If our heart reproach us not, then have we confidence both towards God and man.
2. They humbled themselves before him, confessed their fault, and begged his pardon. They did it by proxy (v. 17); they did it in person, v. 18. Now that the sun and moon had set, the eleven stars did homage to Joseph, for the further accomplishment of his dream. They speak of their former offence with fresh regret: Forgive the trespass. They throw themselves at Joseph’s feet, and refer themselves to his mercy: We are thy servants. Thus we must bewail the sins we committed long ago, even those which we hope through grace are forgiven; and, when we pray to God for pardon, we must promise to be his servants.
3. They pleaded their relation to Jacob and to Jacob’s God. (1.) To Jacob, urging that he directed them to make this submission, rather because he questioned whether they would do their duty in humbling themselves than because he questioned whether Joseph would do his duty in forgiving them; nor could he reasonably expect Joseph’s kindness to them unless they thus qualified themselves for it (v. 16): Thy father did command. Thus, in humbling ourselves to Christ by faith and repentance, we may plead that it is the command of his Father, and our Father, that we do so.
(2.) To Jacob’s God. They plead (v. 17), We are the servants of the God of thy father; not only children of the same Jacob, but worshippers of the same Jehovah. Note, Though we must be ready to forgive all that are any way injurious to us, yet we must especially take heed of bearing malice towards any that are the servants of the God of our father: such we should always treat with a peculiar tenderness; for we and they have the same Master.
II. Joseph, with a great deal of compassion, confirms his reconciliation and affection to them; his compassion appears, v. 17. He wept when they spoke to him. These were tears of sorrow for their suspicion of him, and tears of tenderness upon their submission. In his reply,
1. He directs them to look up to God in their repentance (v. 19): Am I in the place of God? He, in his great humility, thought they showed him too much respect, as if all their happiness were bound up in his favour, and said to them, in effect, as Peter to Cornelius, “Stand up, I myself also am a man. Make your peace with God, and then you will find it an easy matter to make your peace with me.” Note, When we ask forgiveness of those whom we have offended we must take heed of putting them in the place of God, by dreading their wrath and soliciting their favour more than God’s. “Am I in the place of God, to whom alone vengeance belongs? No, I will leave you to his mercy.” Those that avenge themselves step into the place of God, Rom. xii. 19.
2. He extenuates their fault, from the consideration of the great good which God wonderfully brought out of it, which, though it should not make them the less sorry for their sin, yet might make him the more willing to forgive it (v. 20): You thought evil (to disappoint the dreams), but God meant it unto good, in order to the fulfilling of the dreams, and the making of Joseph a greater blessing to his family than otherwise he could have been. Note, When God makes use of men’s agency for the performance of his counsels, it is common for him to mean one thing and them another, even the quite contrary, but God’s counsel shall stand. See Isa. x. 7. Again, God often brings good out of evil, and promotes the designs of his providence even by the sins of men; not that he is the author of sin, far be it from us to think so; but his infinite wisdom so overrules events, and directs the chain of them, that, in the issue, that ends in his praise which in its own nature had a direct tendency to his dishonour; as the putting of Christ to death, Acts ii. 23. This does not make sin the less sinful, nor sinners the less punishable, but it redounds greatly to the glory of God’s wisdom.
3. He assures them of the continuance of his kindness to them: Fear not; I will nourish you, v. 21. See what an excellent spirit Joseph was of, and learn of him to render good for evil. He did not tell them they were upon their good behaviour, and he would be kind to them if he saw they conducted themselves well; no, he would not thus hold them in suspense, nor seem jealous of them, though they had been suspicious of him: He comforted them, and, to banish all their fears, he spoke kindly to them. Note, Broken spirits must be bound up and encouraged. Those we love and forgive we must not only do well for but speak kindly to.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Genesis 50:7-14
7 And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. 10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. 12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: 13 For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. 14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
We have here an account of Jacob’s funeral. Of the funerals of the kings of Judah, usually, no more is said than this, They were buried with their fathers in the city of David: but the funeral of the patriarch Jacob is more largely and fully described, to show how much better God was to him than he expected (he had spoken more than once of dying for grief, and going to the grave bereaved of his children, but, behold, he dies in honour, and is followed to the grave by all his children), and also because his orders concerning his burial were given and observed in faith, and in expectation both of the earthly and of the heavenly Canaan. Now,
1. It was a stately funeral. He was attended to the grave, not only by his own family, but by the courtiers, and all the great men of the kingdom, who, in token of their gratitude to Joseph, showed this respect to his father for his sake, and did him honour at his death. Though the Egyptians had had an antipathy to the Hebrews, and had looked upon them with disdain (ch. xliii. 32), yet now, that they were better acquainted with them, they began to have a respect for them. Good old Jacob had conducted himself so well among them as to gain universal esteem. Note, Professors of religion should endeavour, by wisdom and love, to remove the prejudices which many may have conceived against them because they do not know them. There went abundance of chariots and horsemen, not only to attend them a little way, but to go through with them. Note, The decent solemnities of funerals, according to a man’s situation, are very commendable; and we must not say of them, To what purpose is this waste? See Acts viii. 2; Luke vii. 12.
2. It was a sorrowful funeral (v. 10, 11); standers-by took notice of it as a grievous mourning. Note, The death of good men is a great loss to any place, and ought to be greatly lamented. Stephen dies a martyr, and yet devout men make great lamentations for him. The solemn mourning for Jacob gave a name to the place, Abel-Mizraim, the mourning of the Egyptians, which served for a testimony against the next generation of the Egyptians, who oppressed the posterity of this Jacob to whom their ancestors showed such respect.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Genesis Chapter 50
________________________________________
Here is, I. The preparation for Jacob’s funeral, ver. 1-6. II. The funeral itself, ver. 7-14. III. The settling of a good understanding between Joseph and his brethren after the death of Jacob, ver. 15-21. IV. The age and death of Joseph, ver. 22-26. Thus the book of Genesis, which began with the origin of light and life, ends with nothing but death and darkness; so sad a change has sin made.
The Burial of Jacob. B. C. 1689.
________________________________________
Genesis 50:1-6
1 And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days. 4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. 6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
Joseph is here paying his last respects to his deceased father.
1. With tears and kisses, and all the tender expressions of a filial affection, he takes leave of the deserted body, v. 1. Though Jacob was old and decrepit, and must needs die in the course of nature–though he was poor comparatively, and a constant charge to his son Joseph, yet such an affection he had for a loving father, and so sensible was he of the loss of a prudent, pious, praying father, that he could not part with him without floods of tears. Note, As it is an honour to die lamented, so it is the duty of survivors to lament the death of those who have been useful in their day, though for some time they may have survived their usefulness. The departed soul is out of the reach of our tears and kisses, but with them it is proper to show our respect to the poor body, of which we look for a glorious and joyful resurrection. Thus Joseph showed his faith in God, and love to his father, by kissing his pale and cold lips, and so giving an affectionate farewell. Probably the rest of Jacob’s sons did the same, much moved, no doubt, with his dying words.
2. He ordered the body to be embalmed (v. 2), not only because he died in Egypt, and that was the manner of the Egyptians, but because he was to be carried to Canaan, which would be a work of time, and therefore it was necessary the body should be preserved as well as it might be from putrefaction. See how vile our bodies are, when the soul has forsaken them; without a great deal of art, and pains, and care, they will, in a very little time, become noisome. If the body have been dead four days, by that time it is offensive.
3. He observed the ceremony of solemn mourning for him, v. 3. Forty days were taken up in embalming the body, which the Egyptians (they say) had an art of doing so curiously as to preserve the very features of the face unchanged; all this time, and thirty days more, seventy in all, they either confined themselves and sat solitary, or, when they went out, appeared in the habit of close mourners, according to the decent custom of the country. Even the Egyptians, many of them, out of the great respect they had for Joseph (whose good offices done for the king and country were now fresh in remembrance), put themselves into mourning for his father: as with us, when the court goes into mourning, those of the best quality do so too. About ten weeks was the court of Egypt in mourning for Jacob. Note, What they did in state, we should do in sincerity, weep with those that weep, and mourn with those that mourn, as being ourselves also in the body.
4. He asked and obtained leave of Pharaoh to go to Canaan, thither to attend the funeral of his father, v. 4-6.
(1.) It was a piece of necessary respect to Pharaoh that he would not go without leave; for we may suppose that, though his charge about the corn was long since over, yet he continued a prime-minister of state, and therefore would not be so long absent from his business without licence.
(2.) He observed a decorum, in employing some of the royal family, or some of the officers of the household, to intercede for this licence, either because it was not proper for him in the days of his mourning to come into the presence-chamber, or because he would not presume too much upon his own interest. Note, Modesty is a great ornament to dignity.
(3.) He pleaded the obligation his father had laid upon him, by an oath, to bury him in Canaan, v. 5. It was not from pride or humour, but from his regard to an indispensable duty, that he desired it. All nations reckon that oaths must be performed, and the will of the dead must be observed.
(4.) He promised to return: I will come again. When we return to our own houses from burying the bodies of our relations, we say, “We have left them behind;” but, if their souls have gone to our heavenly Father’s house, we may say with more reason, “They have left us behind.”
(5.) He obtained leave (v. 6): Go and bury thy father. Pharaoh was willing his business should stand still so long; but the service of Christ is more needful, and therefore he would not allow one that had work to do for him to go first and bury his father; no, Let the dead bury their dead, Matt. viii. 22.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Genesis 49:28-33
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. 29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. 33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
Here is, I. The summing up of the blessings of Jacob’s sons, v. 28. Though Reuben, Simeon, and Levi were put under the marks of their father’s displeasure, yet he is said to bless them every one according to his blessing; for none of them were rejected as Esau was. Note, Whatever rebukes of God’s word or providence we are under at any time, yet, as long as we have an interest in God’s covenant, a place and a name among his people, and good hopes of a share in the heavenly Canaan, we must account ourselves blessed.
II. The solemn charge Jacob gave them concerning his burial, which is a repetition of what he had before given to Joseph. See how he speaks of death, now that he is dying: I am to be gathered unto my people, v. 29. Note, It is good to represent death to ourselves under the most desirable images, that the terror of it may be taken off. Though it separates us from our children and our people in this world, it gathers us to our fathers and to our people in the other world. Perhaps Jacob uses this expression concerning death as a reason why his sons should bury him in Canaan; for, says he, “I am to be gathered unto my people, my soul must go to the spirits of just men made perfect: and therefore bury me with my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and their wives,” v. 31. Observe,
1. His heart was very much upon it, not so much from a natural affection to his native soil as from a principle of faith in the promise of God, that Canaan should be the inheritance of his seed in due time. Thus he would keep up in his sons a remembrance of the promised land, and not only would have their acquaintance with it renewed by a journey thither on that occasion, but their desire towards it and their expectation of it preserved.
2. He is very particular in describing the place both by the situation of it and by the purchase Abraham had made of it for a burying-place, v. 30, 32. He was afraid lest his sons, after seventeen years’ sojourning in Egypt, had forgotten Canaan, and even the burying-place of their ancestors there, or lest the Canaanites should dispute his title to it; and therefore he specifies it thus largely, and the purchase of it, even when he lies a-dying, not only to prevent mistakes, but to show how mindful he was of that country. Note, It is, and should be, a great pleasure to dying saints to fix their thoughts upon the heavenly Canaan, and the rest they hope for there after death.
III. The death of Jacob, v. 33. When he had finished both his blessing and his charge (both which are included in the commanding of his sons), and so had finished his testimony, he addressed himself to his dying work.
1. He put himself into a posture for dying; having before seated himself upon the bed-side, to bless his sons (the spirit of prophecy bringing fresh oil to his expiring lamp, Dan. x. 19), when that work was done, he gathered up his feet into the bed, that he might lie along, not only as one patiently submitting to the stroke, but as one cheerfully composing himself to rest, now that he was weary. I will lay me down, and sleep.
2. He freely resigned his spirit into the hand of God, the Father of spirits: He yielded up the ghost.
3. His separated soul went to the assembly of the souls of the faithful, which, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity: he was gathered to his people. Note, If God’s people be our people, death will gather us to them.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Genesis 49:22-27
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: 23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: 24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) 25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: 26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. 27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
He closes with the blessings of his best beloved sons, Joseph and Benjamin; with these he will breathe his last.
I. The blessing of Joseph, which is very large and full. He is compared (v. 22) to a fruitful bough, or young tree; for God had made him fruitful in the land of his affliction; he owned it, ch. xli. 52. His two sons were as branches of a vine, or other spreading plant, running over the wall. Note, God can make those fruitful, great comforts to themselves and others, who have been looked upon as dry and withered. More is recorded in the history concerning Joseph than concerning any other of Jacob’s sons; and therefore what Jacob says of him is historical as well as prophetical. Observe,
1. The providences of God concerning Joseph, v. 23, 24. These are mentioned to the glory of God, and for the encouragement of Jacob’s faith and hope, that God had blessings in store for his seed. Here observe
(1.) Joseph’s straits and troubles, v. 23. Though he now lived at ease and in honour, Jacob reminds him of the difficulties he had formerly waded through. He had had many enemies, here called archers, being skilful to do mischief, masters of their art of persecution. They hated him: there persecution begins. They shot their poisonous darts at him, and thus they sorely grieved him. His brethren, in his father’s house, were very spiteful towards him, mocked him, stripped him, threatened him, sold him, thought they had been the death of him. His mistress, in the house of Potiphar, sorely grieved him, and shot at him, when she impudently assaulted his chastity (temptations are fiery darts, thorns in the flesh, sorely grievous to gracious souls); when she prevailed not in this, she hated him, and shot at him by her false accusations, arrows against which there is little fence but the hold God has in the consciences of the worst of men. Doubtless he had enemies in the court of Pharaoh, that envied his preferment, and sought to undermine him.
(2.) Joseph’s strength and support under all these troubles (v. 24): His bow abode in strength, that is, his faith did not fail, but he kept his ground, and came off a conqueror. The arms of his hands were made strong, that is, his other graces did their part, his wisdom, courage, and patience, which are better than weapons of war. In short, he maintained both his integrity and his comfort through all his trials; he bore all his burdens with an invincible resolution, and did not sink under them, nor do any thing unbecoming him.
(3.) The spring and fountain of this strength; it was by the hands of the mighty God, who was therefore able to strengthen him, and the God of Jacob, a God in covenant with him, and therefore engaged to help him. All our strength for the resisting of temptations, and the bearing of afflictions, comes from God: his grace is sufficient, and his strength is perfected in our weakness.
(4.) The state of honour and usefulness to which he was subsequently advanced: Thence (from this strange method of providence) he became the shepherd and stone, the feeder and supporter, of God’s Israel, Jacob and his family. Herein Joseph was a type,
[1.] Of Christ; he was shot at and hated, but borne up under his sufferings (Isa. l. 7-9), and was afterwards advanced to be the shepherd and stone.
[2.] Of the church in general, and particular believers; hell shoots its arrows against the saints, but Heaven protects and strengthens them, and will crown them.
2. The promises of God to Joseph. See how these are connected with the former: Even by the God of thy father Jacob, who shall help thee, v. 25. Note, Our experiences of God’s power and goodness in strengthening us hitherto are our encouragements still to hope for help from him; he that has helped us will help: we may build much upon our Eben-ezers. See what Joseph may expect from the Almighty, even the God of his father.
(1.) He shall help thee in difficulties and dangers which may yet be before thee, help thy seed in their wars. Joshua came from him, who commanded in chief in the wars of Canaan.
(2.) He shall bless thee; and he only blesses indeed. Jacob prays for a blessing upon Joseph, but the God of Jacob commands the blessing. Observe the blessings conferred on Joseph.
[1.] Various and abundant blessings: Blessings of heaven above (rain in its season, and fair weather in its season, and the benign influences of the heavenly bodies); blessings of the deep that lieth under this earth, which, compared with the upper world, is but a great deep, with subterraneous mines and springs. Spiritual blessings are blessings of heaven above, which we ought to desire and seek for in the first place, and to which we must give the preference; while temporal blessings, those of this earth, must lie under in our account and esteem. Blessings of the womb and the breasts are given when children are safely born and comfortably nursed. In the word of God, by which we are born again, and nourished up (1 Pet. i. 23; ii. 2), there are to the new man blessings both of the womb and the breasts.
[2.] Eminent and transcendent blessings, which prevail above the blessings of my progenitors, v. 26. His father Isaac had but one blessing, and, when he had given that to Jacob, he was at a loss for a blessing to bestow upon Esau; but Jacob had a blessing for each of his twelve sons, and now, at the latter end, a copious one for Joseph. The great blessing entailed upon that family was increase, which did not so immediately and so signally follow the blessings which Abraham and Isaac gave to their sons as it followed the blessing which Jacob gave to his; for, soon after his death, they multiplied exceedingly.
[3.] Durable and extensive blessings: Unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, including all the productions of the most fruitful hills, and lasting as long as they last, Isa. liv. 10. Note, the blessings of the everlasting God include the riches of the everlasting hills, and much more. Well, of these blessings it is here said, They shall be, so it is a promise, or, Let them be, so it is a prayer, on the head of Joseph, to which let them be as a crown to adorn it and a helmet to protect it. Joseph was separated from his brethren (so we read it) for a time; yet, as others read it, he was a Nazarite among his brethren, better and more excellent than they. Note, It is no new thing for the best men to meet with the worst usage, for Nazarites among their brethren to be cast out and separated from their brethren; but the blessing of God will make it up to them.
II. The blessing of Benjamin (v. 27): He shall raven as a wolf; it is plain by this that Jacob was guided in what he said by a spirit of prophecy, and not by natural affection; else he would have spoken with more tenderness of his beloved son Benjamin, concerning whom he only foresees and foretels this, that his posterity should be a warlike tribe, strong and daring, and that they should enrich themselves with the spoils of their enemies–that they should be active and busy in the world, and a tribe as much feared by their neighbours as any other: In the morning, he shall devour the prey, which he seized and divided over night. Or, in the first times of Israel, they shall be noted for activity, though many of them left-handed, Judg. iii. 15; xx. 16. Ehud the second judge, and Saul the first king, were of this tribe; and so also in the last times Esther and Mordecai, by whom the enemies of the Jews were destroyed, were of this tribe. The Benjamites ravened like wolves when they desperately espoused the cause of the men of Gibeah, those men of Belial, Judg. xx. 14. Blessed Paul was of this tribe (Rom. xi. 1; Phil. iii. 5); and he did, in the morning of his day, devour the prey as a persecutor, but, in the evening, divided the spoil as a preacher. Note, God can serve his own purposes by the different tempers of men; the deceived and the deceiver are his.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
viagra and hearing loss Ed Treatment Natural Female use of viagra female version of viagra 761.
erectile dysfunction vacuums Cialis Dysfunction Erectile Levitra how to get viagra
herbal remedy for erectile dysfunction; Erectile Dysfunction Psychological Zocor erectile dysfunction zoloft erectile dysfunction 147.
robin williams viagra Viagra Spray "explore advances in male impotence treatments"
viagra perscription online Natural Remedy Erectile Dysfunction male hormone dhea impotence levels
will ferrell erectile dysfunction Viagra Perscription Online ed treatment with ginko
erectile dysfunction pills evaluated; On Viagra "non prescription viagra"
cialis viagra How To Buy Viagramale impotence age
Cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction cigarette smoking causing male impotence 395. Impotence Viagra The latest treatment for ed topical ed treatment 237.
most effective ed treatment! Viagra 50 Mg actos erectile dysfunction
l dopa for male impotence! Buy Cheap Viagra erectile dysfunction and pravastatin;
male impotence pumps vacu Holistic Ed Treatment cost of viagra
female forcing male sexual impotence; Male Impotence Brochure actos erectile dysfunction
accounting treatment for sr ed Water Ed Treatment Male impotence due to surgery male impotence enema 629.
lamictal erectile dysfunction! Accounting Treatment Sr Ed Ias "buy viagra online"
problems with viagra, Viagra Cheap erectile dysfunction link suggest
"non prescription viagra" Viagra Uk viagra times;
viagra soft tabs? Ed Treatments erectile dysfunction ed treatment
u 3312 viagra cialis Male Impotence Advice yohimbie bark and male impotence
facts male impotence psychological effects
lexapro erectile dysfunction,
erectile dysfunction paypal, Zetia And Erectile Dysfunction straighttalk net erectile dysfunction review
male impotence and solutions? Make Your Own Viagra newest transdermal treatment for ed
tricor erectile dysfunction Hebal Ed Treatmenterectile dysfunction exercise
Viagra and alternatives viagra and blood pressure 767. How To Make Viagra how to take viagra
cialis medication erectile dysfunction Erectile Dysfunction Pills accupril and erectile dysfunction
Subscribe to RSS
