Genesis 49:28-33: a reflection

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.

Having blessed each of his sons, Jacob comes to the end of his life. He gives careful instructions to be buried with his fathers in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and his own wife Leah were laid. Then, the text says, when he had finished charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people. It is a peaceful, dignified death, the passing of an old man who has made his peace and given his blessing.

Two things stand out in Jacob's dying. First, his careful instruction about burial in the family cave in Canaan was itself a statement of faith. He wanted to be laid in the land God had promised, believing that God's promise to his family would hold beyond his own death. Second, the phrase gathered to his people hints at a hope beyond the grave, that in death Jacob was not simply extinguished but joined to those who had gone before him. His death was a passage, not an end.

Jacob's death models a way to face our own. He set his affairs in order, gave his blessing, expressed his faith in God's promises, and died in peace, gathered to his people. For those who belong to God, death is not annihilation but a being gathered, a passage into the presence of God and the company of his people, and for the Christian, a hope made sure by the resurrection of Christ. Live so that you can die like Jacob: at peace, having blessed those you leave, trusting the promises of God beyond the grave.

Lord, Jacob died in peace, having blessed his sons and entrusted himself to your promises, gathered to his people. Teach me to face my own death with that faith. Help me to make my peace, to bless those I love, and to trust your promises beyond the grave. And thank you that for those who belong to you, death is not an end but a being gathered into your presence, made sure by the resurrection of Christ. Amen.