Context No. 3324 of 4322 · Genesis

Genesis 47:25-31: in context

25They said, “You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” 26Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. Only the land of the priests alone didn’t become Pharaoh’s. 27Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly. 28Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred forty-seven years. 29The time came near that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please don’t bury me in Egypt, 30but when I sleep with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place.” Joseph said, “I will do as you have said.” 31Israel said, “Swear to me,” and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself on the bed’s head.

As Jacob's long life draws to a close in Egypt, where his family has prospered in the good land of Goshen, he calls his son Joseph and makes him swear a solemn oath: deal kindly and truly with me; do not bury me in Egypt, but carry me back and lay me with my fathers in their burying place. Joseph promises, and Israel bows in worship.

His insistence is an act of faith. Egypt had saved them and given them a good land, yet Jacob will not let his final resting place be there. By asking to be buried in the promised land, he clings to God's promise even in death, looking past present prosperity to the inheritance God had sworn to Abraham. Comfort in a foreign land did not make him forget where he truly belonged. His last request is a quiet confession that God's promise, not Egypt's plenty, held his hope; he was, to the end, a pilgrim whose home lay in what God had pledged.

Even amid present comfort and prosperity, do I keep my hope fixed on the inheritance God has promised, refusing to let a comfortable "Egypt" become my true home?

Sources

Genesis 47:29: "Please don't bury me in Egypt, but... you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place."
Genesis 47:30: "Joseph said, I will do as you have said."
Hebrews 11:13: "[They] confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."