You can learn much about people’s character by the way they live. Yet you can also learn a lot about them by how they approach dying. When Jacob was 140 years old, he asked his son Joseph for a favor. “Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.” Genesis 47:29b-30
The Promised Land meant everything to Jacob, a man who had spent much of his life in Northwest Mesopotamia working as a shepherd for his uncle Laban and the end of his life in Egypt. When God called him to Bethel from Laban’s, he was instructed to build an altar to worship God there. After obeying this call, Jacob received from Him a new name—Israel. God made him a promise: “A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.” Genesis 35:11
Jacob, now referred to as Israel, and his sons flourished in Canaan, a land soon to be named after its third Patriarch. Unfortunately Jacob would not live out his life here. Soon he’d be in Egypt reunited with Joseph, the son he thought was dead but was saved in order to administer food and supplies during a severe Middle Eastern famine.
Israel died in Egypt but not before he worshiped God while leaning on his staff nor before blessing his sons. He assured Joseph with these words: “I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.” Genesis 48:21
A man who in his youth deceived his father, fled in fear from his brother, and who allowed his uncle to manipulate him now approached death wisely. Israel told his sons where to bury him, who was already buried there, and who he purchased the field from. All of their questions were answered. Then their father died. “When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.” Genesis 49:33
God blessed Israel, not because he deserved it, but because he personally knew the One from whom all blessings flow. In his own words, “the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the Angel who has delivered me from all harm.” Genesis 48:15-16
Israel’s legacy lives on, even in his death.
(Illustration from a Bible card published 1906 by Providence Lithograph Company: Jacob & God’s Promise)
Thank you for reading.
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