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Bible Reading Notes
June 2008
Friday, June 27th – Genesis 49: 33
Jacob died but he spent his last living energies looking ahead to the fullness of salvation (Gen. 49:18). He saw and took a vital interest in the future affairs not only of his own personal salvation but also of the kingdom of God at large. His vision and vital interest extended to the affairs of the Church on earth, as he blessed his sons and their descendants, and to the affairs of the Church in heaven, as he anticipated being gathered to his people already dwelling in the nearer presence of the Lord. The true perspective of the believer’s life is vastly expansive. There is far more to his life and vital interests than can be contained and wrought out within the narrow confines of the few years of his pilgrimage in this cursed world.
Saturday, June 28th - Genesis 50: 1
In the closing verses of chapter 49, Scripture gives us a consideration of Jacob’s death from the perspective of the dying patriarch. In the opening verses of chapter 50, the Word of God gives to us a view of Jacob’s death from the perspective of his living sons. For Jacob, his death was a matter of his great gain; for his sons, it was a matter of their great grief. Yet, they do not grieve as those who have no hope. Through the death and resurrection of the Savior, death, for His people, is not a permanent detaching of the dead from the living, but has been reduced to a mere delaying of their joyous reunion forever in glory.
Sunday, June 29th - Genesis 50: 1
Although all of Jacob’s sons mourned his death, it was Joseph who most deeply wept for his departed father. Joseph had been specially loved by his father (Gen. 37:3), and he, in return, had the deepest filial love for his father. The tears of Joseph were most precious tokens of his love, as were the tears of the penitent woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears (Lk. 7:36-48). The pain of Jacob’s separation from Joseph was deepened and sharpened for the son who had already tasted more than two decades of separation during his slavery and imprisonment in Egypt. But Joseph’s tears were also tokens of his hope in and gratitude to the Lord who had given to him such a faithful father, who had bound them together in holy love, and who wisely and lovingly had gathered his father to a glorious reunion with his people in the Church triumphant. Although the Lord will wipe away such tears, it is due to His gracious, wise, holy, and loving dealings with His people that such tears well up to be wiped away at the right time.
Monday, June 30th - Genesis 50: 1
There is such a thing as godly sorrow. The Lord’s redeeming grace and sanctifying operations in His people do not make them stoically indifferent to grief and mourning. It is precisely the saving work of our God in Christ that makes the water of our tears come from our otherwise stony hearts. Our reconciliation to and love for each other in Christ makes us deeply to delight in each other and deeply to sorrow when we are parted, even for brief periods. Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb even though He knew that He would shortly thereafter call His beloved friend from death to life.
Tuesday, July 1st - Genesis 50: 1
In addition to Joseph weeping over his father, he also fell upon Jacob’s face and kissed him. The kiss is a tactile token of love. Joseph spoke no words to Jacob because the soul of the patriarch had departed. But the physical remains of Jacob were still with his sons and were accordingly regarded by them with tender, loving respect. It is a Gnostic conception that the body is a despised cage imprisoning the soul. The Christian conception of the body regards it as the good work of the creating God as well as an essential aspect of our being. We should therefore show proper, loving respect for the bodies of the living and the dead.
Wednesday, July 2nd - Genesis 50: 1
That Joseph should be the son of Jacob leading in the demonstration of loving respect for his deceased father indicates to us that the special bond between the father and his most beloved son endured beyond and was stronger than death. As Jacob had shown his loving honor for Joseph by giving him a royal coat (Gen. 37:3), so Joseph covered his father in his old age with choice provision in Egypt and at his death with tears and kisses that betokened the profoundly loving honor and respect in which this choicest son held his father who was a champion of faith.
Thursday, July 3rd – Genesis 50: 2, 3
These verses inform us that Joseph had his father’s body embalmed. The embalming of the dead was a technological development found only in Egypt at that time. It was part of the false religion of the Egyptians wherein elaborate provisions were made to direct and enable the dead kings and nobles to make their way to the world they believed existed beyond this one. Joseph did not accept Egypt’s superstitious religion but rather made use of the technology of embalming to preserve his father’s remains to facilitate his transporting them to the Promised Land in fulfillment of the promise he had made to Jacob to do so (Gen. 49:29-32). We should note in this an aspect of the wise foresight and loving ordaining of the Lord. Had Jacob died in any land outside of Canaan other than Egypt, his body could not have been embalmed and so rendered easily transportable without undergoing offensive decay. The wise and loving provision of our God encompasses great dispensations and small details.
Friday, July 4th - Genesis 50: 2, 3
What are we to make of the Egyptians weeping over the death of Jacob? Was their lamentation a duteous performance? Was it an excessive grief without hope? It seems in light of the high esteem in which the Egyptians held Joseph because of his wise and loving administrations by which he had saved their lives during the famine, that sincere gratitude for Joseph and his family and true sympathy for Joseph’s loss prompted their weeping over Jacob’s death. When people love and serve the Lord, they captivate others to follow the example of their appropriate and loving demonstrations of joys and sorrows.
Saturday, July 5th - Genesis 50: 4-6
The sorrowful passion that Joseph experienced issued from his godly love for his father. Yet Joseph did not allow this passion of sorrow for the dead to sweep him into disregard of or presumption toward the living. Hence, Joseph does not simply depart from Egypt with his father’s corpse, being swept by a supposed irresistible tide of anguish that justified anything he felt he should do. Even in his sorrow, it was not his feelings but rather his faith that served to direct Joseph’s actions. Thus we find him not sobbing out demands that Pharaoh should let him return to Canaan, but rather he requests his leave from Egypt’s king. Pharaoh was Joseph’s superior, and Joseph was keenly attuned to the duty God’s moral law laid upon him to honor his superiors. If we trust and follow the Lord in one area of our lives, our course will not lead us to offend God’s law in any other area of our lives.
Sunday, July 6th - Genesis 50: 4-6
Part of the reason that Joseph could be guided by godly principle rather than by his passions was that he wisely waited until the 70-day period of mourning was past before he spoke to Pharaoh. Hot tears and cool thinking do not go well together. Time may not heal all wounds but all wounds do require time to heal. When our hearts are sore with grief we are not in the best position to bear the full load of our responsibilities. Accordingly, Joseph waits until he is sufficiently healed from his grief before he endeavors rightly to fulfill the promise he had made to his father to take his mortal remains back to Canaan. The happy results vindicate the wisdom of Joseph having waited to make his case to Pharaoh.
Monday, July 7th - Genesis 50: 4-6
Although Pharaoh had exalted Joseph to be ruler over all in Egypt except over Pharaoh himself, the son of Jacob demonstrates his humility in the way he approaches the king of Egypt. Joseph does not directly intrude upon Pharaoh but communicates with him through the members of his household. In this way, the issue of Joseph’s request could be considered by Pharaoh without the personal pressure of Joseph’s presence. It is characteristic of the spiritually mature soul that he makes no pressing demands upon his God or his superiors under God, but rather that he presents humble requests, trusting in the wisdom, love, and power of God to give him what he asks if it should serve for the Lord’s glory and man’s good.
Tuesday, July 8th – Genesis 50: 5
Joseph makes clear in this verse the reason upon which he bases his request to Pharaoh. He does not mention personal desire, but tells how his request is based upon his sense of loving duty to his father. Accordingly, Joseph indicates that his request in no way indicates disregard for Pharaoh. When Joseph pledges that he would return after burying his father, and resume his responsible ruling over Egypt, he makes clear that he is committed to his fulfilling the promise he had made to Jacob without forsaking the responsibilities that were his under Pharaoh. We are called by our heavenly Father to love and serve Him without failing to love, respect, and serve others.
Wednesday, July 9th - Genesis 50: 5, 6
Pharaoh answers Joseph in terms that were beyond what he had asked. We perceive this when we note that while the king of Egypt grants permission for Joseph to bury his father in Canaan, he says nothing about Joseph being obliged to return to Egypt. Ultimately, this open allowance resulted from Joseph’s trust not in Pharaoh’s generosity but in God’s grace. If we would trust our God more, and treat others—even those who do not know Him—with more respectful consideration, we should not be surprised to find ourselves treated more considerately by men.
Thursday, July 10th - Genesis 50: 5, 6
These verses speak well to us of Joseph and of Pharaoh. They show us Joseph determined to keep his loving promise not by force of demand or rebellious deeds, but through a humble, respectful request and a determination to minimize the cost to Pharaoh. In return, Pharaoh readily grants more than Joseph had asked. This Pharaoh clearly had high regard for the practical wisdom and the loving grace that Joseph had demonstrated for the decades of his service in Egypt. Accordingly, he was willing to let this treasured Hebrew leave Egypt to bury his dead father, trusting in his word that he would return to resume his civic duties once this domestic duty was complete. Contrast the actions of this Pharaoh with a future king of Egypt who would not let Israel go in order that they might worship the living God, their heavenly Father (Ex. 5:1-4). Under both Pharaohs, the godly were enabled to perform their God-given service; but under the first, Egypt’s king and people prospered, while under the second, the Egyptians and their king were plagued and punished. Let the godly know and the godless note that blessing abounds for the Church and the state only when both submit to and serve the Lord.
Friday, July 11th – Genesis 50: 7-9
These verses indicate to us the great respect shown to Jacob’s memory by the Egyptians among whom he had lived the last 17 years of his life. In v.7 we learn that Pharaoh not only gave Joseph permission to go to Canaan and there to bury his father, but that Egypt’s king sent the cream of his family’s and nation’s crop to accompany Joseph and to honor Jacob. Those who do not understand the compelling force of love may cynically think this great Egyptian contingency served to ensure that Joseph would return from Canaan. Yet there is not a hint that Pharaoh sent these noble representatives from any motive other than that of most sincere and loving regard for Joseph. As men can trust God, so they can trust the godly to keep their word. And as men who truly know God delight to honor and serve Him sacrificially, so men who are privileged to know such godly ones as Joseph delight to lavish costly tokens of respect upon them.
Saturday, July 12th - Genesis 50: 7-9
The households of Jacob’s sons are united in the funeral procession of their father. They who had envied Joseph’s special status in their household here are united with him and willingly follow his lead as they together pass through this valley of the shadow of death. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones (Ps. 116:15), and those most perceptive of the bitter sweetness of this sobering providence find their sinful remnants most mortified and their heavenly-mindedness most quickened. We do well to live our lives by numbering our days in view of the certainty of our death and the death of all others we know (Ps.90:12).
Sunday, July 13th - Genesis 50: 7-9
Scripture notes that the children and livestock of Jacob’s sons remained in Egypt. The little ones and living possessions were not retained in Egypt as hostages to ensure Joseph’s return. Rather, it is clear from the wording of v.8 that Joseph and his brothers chose to leave in Egypt those of diminished capacity for grief and for the rigors of the journey. Their choice indicates their realistic and loving consideration for the weakness of their children, as well as their confidence in the caring disposition of their Egyptian neighbors, and, above all, their trust in and reliance upon the Lord for His superintending care. We do well to make all of our decisions and dispositions of our affairs on the basis of such trust in the Lord.
Monday, July 14th - Genesis 50: 10-14
These verses tell us not simply of the arrival of the funeral procession in Canaan, but especially of the great chorus of lamentation that arose as the funeral approached its completion. This great mourning that Joseph led for the perfect number of days revealed the mourners’ consciousness of their great loss. It would have been a testimony of shameful ingratitude on the part of these sons of Jacob and the accompanying Egyptians had they failed to sense with profound grief the magnitude of their loss of a man who had wrestled with God and prevailed.
Tuesday, July 15th - Genesis 50: 11
The great and moving mourning of the Egyptians in particular was observed by and so deeply impressed the inhabitants of Canaan that they changed the name of the place of this mourning. No longer was it called Goren ha-atad (the threshing floor of Atad), indicating a processing place for satisfying food. This event caused the Canaanites to rename the place Abel-mizraim (mourning of the Egyptians), indicating a place of the shedding of bitter tears. Yet, there is no indication that the Canaanites themselves joined in this mourning. They had the privilege of Jacob dwelling in their midst for most of his life and apparently remained ignorant of his greatness. The godless have the righteous dwelling among them and are content to remain ignorant of such treasures until the day of glory reveals how costly their ignorance will forever be to them.
Wednesday, July 16th - Genesis 50: 12, 13
Jacob’s sons fulfilled the charge he gave them to bury him in a very specific place in the Promised Land. They were led in their conveying their dead father to Canaan by Jacob’s great and godly son, Joseph. Yet, this completed mission of loving devotion and filial giving of honor was but a foreshadowing of Jacob’s greater son, the Lord Jesus, conveying him with glorified body and perfected immortal soul to the eternal glory of the heavenly Canaan. Not only would Jacob be so borne to heaven, but all true sons of Israel have the same sure hope.
Thursday, July 17th - Genesis 50: 14
This verse informs us that Joseph was true to his word. As he had lead his brothers and the Egyptians out of Egypt and into Canaan for his father’s burial, so when he fulfilled his promise to his deceased father he then returned to Egypt with the whole funeral company in fulfillment of his promise to Pharaoh. Yet Joseph and his brothers returned to Egypt with a strong and enduring cord binding them to Canaan as a result of their father’s burial there. And although they themselves never returned to Canaan, they clearly kept the hope of the Promised Land alive in their hearts and nurtured it in the hearts of their descendants so that centuries later, when God through Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt, there was no doubt or debate over the land into which He would lead them. Nor do we doubt the final destination of our living hope in Christ (Jn. 14:1-3; 17:15-26; Rev. 22:1-5).
Friday, July 18th - Genesis 50: 15
After their father’s death, the brothers of Joseph experienced a revival of their old fears. Their fears were based on things that were true and things that were false. What was true was that they had wronged Joseph and did deserve to be justly recompensed for their wrong. What was false was their supposition that their father, Jacob, had been shielding them from their just recompense. It was also false that Joseph had feigned the forgiveness he had rendered them. Far from Joseph holding a grudge against them, he regarded them graciously and lovingly because he himself had been graciously regarded by the Lord who interposes His mercy between what His children deserve and what He lovingly delivers to them. The more we apprehend the Lord’s grace toward us, the less fearful and more secure, grateful and trusting we shall be. Our God is neither honored nor pleased when we nurture our guilty fears rather than feed upon His grace.
Saturday, July 19th - Genesis: 50: 16, 17
The wicked flee when no man pursues them (Prov. 28:1). Against the imagined grudge that Joseph bore toward his brothers, those brothers appear in these verses to fabricate a charge from their deceased father whom they imagined to have been their shield against Joseph. We believe the brothers of Joseph here to be resorting to desperate and unnecessary lying, because if Jacob had sensed the need for such reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers, the patriarch would certainly have addressed this matter when he was alive. Joseph wept when he discerned his brothers’ needless fears and fabrication. The godly and gracious Joseph wept over their slowness to believe in the goodness of God and their sure reconciliation and security in Him and in the certainty of the Lord’s love for them through Joseph. He surely wept also over the way their guilty fears prompted them to dishonor their dead father by their lie, as well as to distrust and dishonor their living, loving brother, and above all, their gracious heavenly Father. How greatly our guilty fears grieve our gracious God!
Sunday, July 20th - Genesis 50: 18
Though old fears fill Joseph’s brothers, their actions are mixed with new faith. They come to Joseph, rather than seeking to hide from him. They apparently drop their lie in this verse, speaking and appealing directly to Joseph, whose weeping had stripped them of their fabrication as God’s compassion for our first parents stripped them of their self-fashioned fig leaves. And as God clothed our first parents in animal skins, pointing to their cleansing via the shedding of the blood of a substitute sacrifice, so now Joseph’s brothers have their fears and concocted devices removed and don themselves with humility and hope in the sure mercy of God and of God’s servant, Joseph, whose servants they offer to be. Faith prompts those having it to humble themselves and seek mercy from God and the godly.
Monday, July 21st - Genesis 50: 18-20
Imperfect faith leads these brothers to the source of perfect mercy. Joseph in v.19 humbly admits that he is not the ultimate source of avenging justice or of saving grace. God alone is that source. Yet, those who seek his saving mercy, thinking that they will have to settle for it in the low terms of servitude, will find that they receive it in the highest terms of their being saved and greatly beloved children of God and reconciled together with all others who seek the Lord’s mercy.
Tuesday, July 22nd - Genesis 50: 20
This is the key verse for Joseph’s life and for our understanding his unwavering trust in the Lord and his unceasing mercy for men, including, not least, his own brothers. Such trust in and reliance upon the gracious and effective sovereignty of the Lord is the true and practical perspective in the light of which Joseph considered (and we should consider) all things. In all things, Joseph rightly reckoned that he was secure in the absolute sovereignty, the immeasurable love, the infallible wisdom, and the almighty power of his God, who rules over all things—even sinlessly overruling the sins of men—for the good of His people (Rom. 8:28). Such trust in such a God preserves the faithful from all harm and fills them with patient and gracious understanding of those who, however they may try to hurt them, serve only to help them.
Wednesday, July 23rd - Genesis 50: 20, 21
Those trusting in the salvation of the living and sovereign God bear no grudge against and pose no threat to any man. They who have been saved by the love of God in Christ become themselves instruments and conduits of saving mercy. Accordingly, Joseph vanquishes the guilty fears of his brothers and pledges to them that he would continue to be their servant, providing all necessary and pleasant things for them and for their children. We, who are spiritual children of Israel, still feed our souls on the light and comfort that Joseph provides for us through the Scriptural account of his life.
Thursday, July 24th - Genesis 50: 22-26
With these verses we come to the end of the Book of Genesis—the end of the Book of Beginnings. We are first told of the blessed life that Joseph and his brothers and their descendants enjoyed in Egypt. Peace and security was theirs, just as Joseph had promised to provide for them all. Joseph lived 110 years, meaning that he lived more than 50 years after the death of Jacob and always acted toward his brothers with loving grace and generous provision. The focus in these closing verses is definitely upon the covenant family who were in Egypt but not of Egypt. The touching note in v.23 of Joseph’s great-grandsons being born on his knees indicates how he did not let his courtly duties take undue priority over his family life. In the words of John Calvin, Joseph: …gradually took his leave of the treasures of the court…lest earthly dignity separate him from the kingdom of God….Joseph during 60 years, employed all his efforts to bring himself and his children into a state of submission, lest his earthly greatness should alienate them from the little flock of the Lord.
Friday, July 25th - Genesis 50: 24, 25
Here Joseph announces his death to his brothers, some of the older ones at this point likely having preceded him in death. Once again, Joseph makes clear to them that he had been but the instrument of God’s care for them, while the Lord Himself was the source of that care. Joseph also testifies of sin and salvation to his brothers and to all who read God’s Word. Of sin he testifies when he declares that death, the wages of sin, was upon him. But sin and death would not have the final word. Joseph twice declares that although he was about to die, God ever lived and would surely be faithful to His gracious covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Specifically, Joseph reminds them of God’s promise to return them to the Promised Land (Gen. 15: 12-21). Thus, at his death, Joseph does his greatest service to his brothers by fixing their faith upon the Lord who would and did care for them in Egypt, through times of their abounding and being abased, and who would and did care for them when He brought them out of Egypt, through their wilderness wanderings, and into the Promised Land. We can all trust such a gracious and giving God, who cares for us to the point of His Son’s death and our eternal life.
Saturday, July 26th - Genesis 50: 25, 26
Joseph, as his father had done, also testified to the resurrecting power of God over death when he charged his brothers and their descendants to carry his bones out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. This they did under Moses (Ex. 13:19) and Joshua (Josh. 24:32). This charge Joseph gave by commendable faith (Heb. 11:22), as he looked through his death to the shadow of his eternal life as symbolized by Canaan, and to its substance of the heavenly city. Genesis ends on the somber note of this great man’s death and placement in a coffin in Egypt. The world was changed greatly since God had made it very good and placed man in a garden with a promise of eternal life. This change came due to the first man’s sin. But sin and death did not and will not have the last words. For the light that shines in this darkness is composed of the gracious promise and coming provision of God’s salvation through Christ. Therefore, Joseph died in faith fixed upon this sovereign, graciously saving Lord, and he has served to show us how to live and die in faith, as we look for and cry out in certain expectation words we find at the end of the last book of the Bible: Come, Lord Jesus (Rev. 22:20). Amen.
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