Respect

2/20/2008 9:23 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Respect

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 50:7-14

            Message of the verses:  “7 ¶  So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt,  8  and all the household of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household; they left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen.  9  There also went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company.  10  When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he observed seven days mourning for his father.  11  Now when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning for the Egyptians." Therefore it was named Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.  12  Thus his sons did for him as he had charged them;

13  for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field for a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.  14  After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.”

            I am not too sure how it was that all of these things that were done for Jacob’s preparation for burial and for his burial started, but I believe that a lot of it had to be the culture of Egypt minus the paganism.  At any rate the whole process took a very long time to do and it met a trip to the land of Canaan for a great many people.  Jacob is a very important person in the history of the nation of Israel, for the name Israel was given to Jacob by God Himself after they battled all night, so I am not saying that none of this was not deserved by Jacob, but only that it seemed like it was not the normal thing to be done when burying someone from the nation of Israel. 

            You can see the great love that Joseph had for his father Jacob throughout this whole story and it is no wonder that many scholars believe that this is a picture of the relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and His Heavenly Father.

            Most all of the children of Israel went up to Canaan for Jacobs’s services and even some of the Egyptians went along too.  The first stop was at a threshing floor named Atad, where the entire group mourned for seven days and this brought quite a reaction from the Canaanites after seeing this.  After this Jacobs twelve sons to the body of Jacob to the cave which was bought by Abraham to bury his wife in, and this is where they buried Jacob.

           

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There are two verses that speak to me as I read this section of Scripture, and one of them is in verse twelve where obedience is seen from all of Jacob’s sons as they did what they had promised there father they would do concerning his burial.  Verse fourteen speaks of another kind of obedience when all that came to Canaan for Jacob’s funeral returned to Egypt, especially Joseph, for this is where God wanted His people so that He could make a nation out of them during the next four hundred years. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Samuel told Soul that obedience was better than sacrifice and that is what my step of faith is for today, to obey the Lord.

Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 1:9-11

9. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
10. so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
11. having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.