Jacob dies in Egypt and makes Joseph promise that he will be buried in the family cave back in Canaan. In the meantime, Jacob is to be embalmed (a rather expensive and time-consuming practice at the time) and everyone mourns for 70 days. Weeping now fulfilled, it’s time to move Jacob to the cave.
But things get a little odd here. For starters, Joseph has to ask permission to leave to go bury his father. Now, that doesn’t seem crazy, we’re in the middle of a famine and your lead man needs to be away a bit, you’d certainly want to mention it. But there’s tension here in the way Joseph is asking. Notice he’s kind of laying it on thick, asking “…if I’ve found favor in your eyes…” and loading the request with the weight of him having sworn to his dad that this promise would be kept. Also note that he doesn’t ask Pharaoh directly, he goes through Pharaoh’s household to get the answer.
Certainly, Pharaoh agrees readily, there isn’t an issue here, but there’s a hint that things may not always be this way. Tellingly, the next time we find the nation of Israel asking the Pharaoh of Egypt if it is ok to leave, that request will be rejected.
Leaving the kids and the beasts behind, everyone heads out to put Jacob to rest, including some of Pharaoh’s servants. They stop in Atad (location unclear) for another extended mourning session. The mourning lasts for 7 days and the locals rename the place “the lament of Egypt” (hmm, again a foreshadowing that the nation of Israel runs a risk of losing their identity while in Egypt). They eventually make their way to Machpelah, do the deed, and head back to Egypt.
Now that Jacob is dead, we see there remains a schism between Joseph and his brothers (who obviously haven’t learned their lesson). They concoct a story that before his death, Jacob instructed them to command Joseph to forgive them for what they had done to him. Deception bookends the Genesis story, as does the reaction of forgiveness, provision and care in response. Joseph weeps, although it is unclear whether it was in disappointment of his brothers’ obvious lie or perhaps frustration that they just can’t latch onto Joseph’s grace in the manner.
There is relevance to that second one for us. Often we are the foolish brothers who just can’t quite trust the forgiveness we’ve been extended, even in the face of our egregious sin against God and man. And so, we act as if our reality hasn’t been changed by that forgiveness and try to get that reality to bend in our direction through false means. We look as silly doing that as Joseph’s brothers do here. The depth and breadth of God’s kindness to us is difficult to comprehend, but that doesn’t make it any less true. The work here isn’t to earn the grace, it’s to constantly fight to not lose perspective and live boldly and confidently within it.
Joseph lives 110 years (mentioned twice), a number that likely had relevance in the Egyptian context as that was the ideal age in Egypt. He reiterates the promise that God will remove them from this land and place them in the land promised to Abraham. He also makes them promise that when that time comes, they will take his bones with them. Interestingly, Joseph doesn’t seem to have the family cave in view, his body just awaits the time for God’s deliverance for the nation of Israel into that which God has promised. Note that at this point, they aren’t under any particular constraint, they aren’t captives (yet) in Egypt. But all that is soon to change.