Scripture Daily

Context No. 1921 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 46:24-34: in context

24The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. 25These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob: all the souls were seven. 26All the souls who came with Jacob into Egypt, who were his direct offspring, in addition to Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls were sixty-six. 27The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy. 28Jacob sent Judah before him to Joseph, to show the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen. 29Joseph prepared his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. 30Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive.” 31Joseph said to his brothers, and to his father’s house, “I will go up, and speak with Pharaoh, and will tell him, ‘My brothers, and my father’s house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 32These men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.’ 33It will happen, when Pharaoh summons you, and will say, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34that you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

Jacob and his whole household, seventy in all, come down to Egypt at Joseph's invitation. Jacob sends Judah ahead to Joseph to point the way to Goshen. And Joseph readies his chariot and goes up to meet his father, whom he has not seen in more than twenty years, whom he was torn from as a young man sold into slavery. He presents himself, falls on his father's neck, and weeps a long while. And Israel says to Joseph, now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive.

This is a scene of reunion after long loss, and its joy is deep. Jacob had believed Joseph dead, torn from him decades earlier, mourned as gone forever; the wound had never healed. And now, against all expectation, father and son are reunited, Joseph alive and exalted, and Jacob weeping on his neck, saying, now let me die, for I have seen your face. The son Jacob had mourned as dead is restored to him alive; the loss he thought final was reversed. God gave back to Jacob what he had long given up as lost. There is hope in this for those who carry long losses that seem final and irreversible. Jacob had lost Joseph, mourned him as dead, carried the grief for over twenty years, with no reason to hope; and God restored the son he had lost. Not every earthly loss is reversed in this life; Jacob's story is not a promise that all our lost ones will be given back to us here. But it is a testimony that God is able to restore what seems lost beyond recovery, that the losses we think final may not be, that reunion and restoration are within God's power even where we have given up hope. And for those who grieve losses that this life will not reverse, the story points beyond itself to a greater reunion and restoration, when God will wipe away every tear and, for those in Christ, restore what death has taken. Jacob's cry, now let me die, since I have seen your face, is the voice of a grief turned to joy, a loss reversed, a reunion long past hoping for. And the God who restored Joseph to Jacob is the God of restoration, who can bring back what seems lost, and who holds out, beyond every final-seeming loss, the hope of reunion and restoration in the end. What seemed lost forever was given back; and the God who did it for Jacob is the God whose final word to his people, over all their losses, is restoration.

Do I carry a long loss that seems final and beyond recovery, and can I take hope from Jacob's reunion with the son he had mourned as dead, that God is able to restore what seems lost, and that beyond even the losses this life will not reverse stands his promise of reunion and restoration for those who are his?

Sources