Moments to Ponder

Episode 118: Joseph's Journey: Redemption, Forgiveness, and Faith (Gen. 50)

• Betsy Marvin • Season 14 • Episode 118

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How does the story of Joseph conclude, and what lessons can we glean from his life? Prepare to be moved as we explore the final chapter of Joseph's journey, beginning with the profound mourning and embalming of Jacob. We recount the emotional moment when Joseph reassures his brothers of his forgiveness and highlights God's greater plan, showcasing his unwavering faith and prophetic assurance that God would lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Reflecting on the theme of redemption, we draw powerful parallels between Joseph's life and Psalm 103. Discover how God transformed intended harm into good, elevating Joseph to a position of power and ultimately saving his family. Through this inspiring discussion, we emphasize God's redemptive hope and unwavering love, encouraging listeners to trust in His purpose for their lives.

Concluding our series on Joseph, we hope this episode leaves you inspired to stay immersed in God's word and seek His guidance in your own journey. 

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Speaker 1:

Hi, friends, welcome to Moments to Ponder. This is a podcast designed to help you journey through God's Word, gain fresh perspectives and find meaningful takeaways to ponder throughout your week. I'm Betsy Marvin and this is Episode 118. Is episode 118. Friends, we have come to the end of Genesis and the account of Joseph's life. When we started this journey, I had no idea it would lead us through 14 somewhat inconsistent episodes and that we would discover so many new things along the way. I pray that our journey has been a time of learning and heart connection as we've walked with Joseph from dreamer to leader. His life had so much to teach us, didn't it? The trials and the waiting, all of the things he went through, leading to the good that God brought from it all.

Speaker 1:

Chapter 50 begins with a funeral. I can remember thinking, when I was like 18 or 19 years old, that I'd never attended a funeral of a family member, and now there have been many. I've been to celebrations of a life so fully lived with faith that it was joy-filled, and I've been to services that felt really empty and lost because the life didn't have the hope of Jesus. With Jacob's Kadesh, we read of a family that fully mourned their father. Yes, jacob had some challenges, but we get the impression that the Egyptian years were good ones as the family grew and settled. Let's begin with verse 1. So Jacob was embalmed. The embalming process took the usual 40 days and the Egyptians mourned his death for 70 days. 70 days was the normal mourning period in ancient Egypt, which was very different than the quick burials in Sheba of the Israelites. Sheba was a seven-day mourning period that began with the burial, but Jacob's was extended 10 times that with the Egyptians. They showed such respect for Joseph as they mourned his father. The embalming is interesting to note as it was a process that was only used for high officials and royalty in Egypt. But here we see Jacob being so honored by his son.

Speaker 1:

When the period of mourning was over, joseph approached Pharaoh's advisors and said please do me this favor and speak to Pharaoh on my behalf. Tell him that my father made me swear an oath. He said to me listen, I'm about to die. Take my body back to the land of Canaan and bury me in the tomb I prepared for myself. So please allow me to go and bury my father After his burial. I will return without delay. Pharaoh agreed to Joseph's request. Go and bury your father, as he made you promise. He said. So Joseph went up to bury his father. He was accompanied by all of Pharaoh's officials, all the senior members of Pharaoh's household and all the senior officers of Egypt. Joseph also took his entire household and his brothers and their households, but they left their little children in flocks and herds in the land of Goshen.

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No-transcript. This was called a levaya, which is a Hebrew word that means accompanying or escorting, as they escorted Jacob to his burial place. I mean there would have been hundreds of people traveling four days to reach this place of burial. That's quite an undertaking. Let's continue with verse 10. Let's continue with verse 10. When they arrived at the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan River, they held a very great and solemn memorial service, with a seven-day period of mourning for Joseph's father. The local residents, the Canaanites, watched them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad. Then they renamed that place, which is near the Jordan, abizel Merazim, for they said this is a place of deep mourning for these Egyptians. So Jacob's sons did as he commanded them. They carried his father to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the cave that Abraham had brought as a permanent burial site from Ephron the Hittite. Here we see them honor Shiva, the seven days of mourning after burial. For those of you that like a little bit of more detail, it's believed that Joseph and this traveling group took the same route across the Jordan into Canaan that Joshua would take hundreds of years later, mamre is near modern-day Jerusalem and most likely still holds the embalmed body of Jacob, as archaeologists have not yet discovered this cave.

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After burying Jacob, joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his father's burial. But now that their father was dead, joseph's brothers became fearful. Now Joseph will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him. They said so. They sent this message to Joseph Before your father died. He instructed us to say to you Please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you, for their sin in treating you so cruelly. So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive our sin. When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. Look, we are your slaves, they said. But Joseph replied Don't be afraid of me. Am I God that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. No, don't be afraid, I will continue to take care of you and your children. So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them. So Joseph and his brothers and their family continued to live in Egypt.

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Joseph lived to the age of 110. He lived to see three generations of his descendants, of his son Ephraim, and he lived to see the birth of the children of Manasseh's son, machir, whom he claimed as his own Soon. I will die, joseph told his brothers, but God will surely come to you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and he said when God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you. So Joseph died at the age of 110. With you. So Joseph died at the age of 110. The Egyptians embalmed him and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt. According to this passage and Hebrews 11.22,. Joseph was never buried. His coffin laid above ground for the 400 years or so until it was taken back to Canaan, which we spoke of in the last episode. His tomb was a silent witness that Israel would go back to the promised land, just as God said.

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Oh, we've come to the close of this book and from this chapter, the scene that sticks with me is the one with the brothers as we see them once again go to Joseph after Jacob's burial and they lie, saying basically, dad told us to tell you to forgive us. We read that Joseph wept and for me, I can see this. I can see someone that's crying for them and over them, not for himself. He had to be wondering how can they still be afraid? Why are they choosing to live in fear? At Jacob's death? Joseph is probably in his 50s, putting Reuben near 70.

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After all these years and all the help and all the care, the brothers are still holding on to the shame and guilt from what they had done over 30 years before, to the point of saying we are your slaves, which they said many years before. They're still afraid. Their minds can't seem to comprehend grace. It is hard to receive what you don't know how to give. I wonder if this speaks to something deeper as well. They actually knew, at least in their heads, that they were forgiven by Joseph, but had they ever forgiven themselves for what they had done, and had they ever gone to the Lord for forgiveness? I have to wonder if their fear was grounded in not knowing the character of God. They had been forgiven without consequences. They weren't made slaves, they weren't beaten. In fact, they were welcome and embraced and well provided for. Somehow they can't fully accept that the grace Joseph has shown them is real, and I wonder if it's because they need a deeper understanding of God.

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Now, as a parent, when I forgave my child for something, I knew that I had to truly forgive them and let it go. I couldn't continually bring it up and hold it over their head. I want them to grow, not be held back by a mistake or wrong they've done, but to lean into what they learned and move forward free of guilt or shame. And because they know me, my kids know my love for them. Brothers came from who they are, not what they'd done which mirrored God's love for them. Yet I know through my own experiences that we need to forgive ourselves. We need to see ourselves as God does.

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In reality, we are so much harder on ourselves than other people can be, and whether we feel like we need to keep paying for what we've done due to unworthiness or pride, or holding on to shame because, well, we deserve it right, don't we? But I think this speaks to where we place our identity. Do we place it in what we do, what we've done, or in whose we are? We are not defined by our jobs, our lineage or our sins. Defined by our jobs, our lineage or our sins. We are not what we have done. We are whose we are.

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When God tells us His grace is sufficient, that is exactly what it means. He is enough. In all our unworthiness and faults, his grace covers us. That's the amazing thing that we struggle to understand and will never understand until we're with him. That grace is offered not because of any deserving of it on our part. It's offered because we are loved. This is what the brothers can't come to terms with. They knew they deserved slavery or at least some kind of pain, so they keep reliving it and bringing it back up and punishing themselves.

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As I read their story, I find myself saying Get over it, receive the wonder of the grace you've been giving and stop holding onto the shame from 30 years ago. You've been forgiven. Live into it, share it, learn from it, stop going back to it and look forward at what God is doing. But even as I think that, I think how often do I or you do the same? You know you are forgiven because God tells us that he will forgive, yet how often do we find ourselves holding on to guilt or shame from something we have done in the past? We know we deserve consequences because, well, we know what we've done. Yet God says consequences, yes, pay them, but then move forward and know this no matter what, I love you and I forgive you. In fact, god sent his son to pay the ultimate consequences for our sins so that we can live free of shame. In Romans, it tells us there is no condemnation. That's how much he loves us. I know this doesn't make sense in our world and honestly, it didn't in Joseph's world either. But in God's upside down kingdom living world, he tells us that God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him.

Speaker 1:

Joseph's story has continually foreshadowed what is to come through Christ, and in this scene we see one last look toward Jesus. Just as Joseph weeps over his brother's lies and fears, we will see Jesus do this in Luke 19. We're told that as Jesus came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. How I wish today that you, of all people, would understand the way to peace. Jesus was saying stop holding on to shame. It's keeping you from peace and living fully free in me. Allow yourselves to let go. Yes, you don't deserve it, but it's yours, so embrace it, learn from it and then share it with others. Jesus doesn't hold anything over us, and if the God of the universe, who is perfect and holy, has removed our sin as far as the East is from the West, we need to let that be removed. Let it go, pull the roots of guilt and shame with it and step into the freedom he offers.

Speaker 1:

In Psalm 103, king David said it this way the Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve, but his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sin as far from us as the east is from the west.

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As Joseph's life ends, he looks toward God's redemption and the promised land to come, and I love his words that he gave his brothers. You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. Dear ones, those are the words for us today. God took an arrogant dreamer and helped him become the second in command for the greatest ruler of his time, which led to saving and protecting his people, this family.

Speaker 1:

God brought his plan for Joseph to fruition by taking all the wrong intended for Joseph and bringing it to good. And he does the same for you and for me, all those things that happen to us, all those circumstances in our lives. He is working and he will bring it to good. His unveiling love for you is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. Dear one, you are loved and known and giving grace beyond understanding. May the hope of Joseph's story give us hope for our story today. Amen. Thank you for joining me for this series on Joseph. I will take a few weeks to prayerfully consider our next moments together. But in the meantime, please stay in God's word and ponder what he has for you within those wonderful pages.