Scripture Daily

Context No. 4167 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 49:28-33: in context

28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them, and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his own blessing. 29He instructed them, and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place. 31There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah: 32the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.” 33When Jacob finished charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, breathed his last breath, and was gathered to his people.

At the end of his long life, Jacob gathers his sons, blesses them, and gives his final charge: bury me with my fathers in the cave in the land of Canaan, where Abraham and Isaac are buried. And having finished, he draws his feet up into the bed, breathes his last, and is gathered to his people.

There is faith in this dying request. Jacob was in Egypt, far from the promised land, and would die there. But he insisted on being buried in Canaan, because he believed God's promise that this land belonged to his descendants. Even in death, Jacob's hope was anchored in God's promise; he wanted his bones to rest in the land God had sworn to give his family. His burial was an act of faith, a statement that God's word about the future would surely come to pass. And the phrase gathered to his people hints at a hope beyond the grave. He died in faith, still holding to God's promises, facing death not clutching at this life but anchored in the God who keeps his word.

Do I hold to God's promises even in the face of death, like Jacob, with a hope anchored in God's faithful word and reaching beyond the grave, so that I might one day face death in faith rather than clutching at this life?

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