And Joseph said to his brethren, I die; and God will certainly visit you, and bring you up out of this land, into the land that he swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Joseph dies at the top of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. His last words look past Egypt to a land his family had left and to God's oath to their fathers.
The verse holds two facts side by side: a man is going, and God stays. One commentator shows how Joseph turns his brothers' eyes off himself and onto the One who does not die. The quote below keeps an older wording of the promise: "God will surely visit you."
So he speaks no more of man and man's small world, but of God — the living God, of the faithfulness of God, of the power of God, and the land of God. "I die," says Joseph. The life of the man who had saved other lives by a great deliverance is fast slipping away, but if Joseph dies, God lives; if Joseph departs, God remains. And into the hands of the living and unchanging God he commends his brothers. Though he may be taken from them, he can still say with full assurance of faith, "God will surely visit you."
They had Pharaoh's favour, the best land in Egypt, and one of their own running the country. Yet Joseph speaks of a God who must come and bring them out.
Strange this was, very strange! Who could believe it? … God's word was his wisdom. God's message in Genesis 15 had warned that Egypt would afflict Israel, but that God would befriend them and bring them back to Canaan. That word from God was everything to Joseph, everything to faith — appearances were nothing. Joseph believed it and remembered it. And so by faith Joseph saw Israel's affliction on the day of Israel's brightest promise and prosperity. He saw Egypt's hostility in this day of Egypt's friendship. He saw brick-kilns and slave-drivers in the fair fields and sunny harvest of Goshen.
The same writer turns this into a rule for every believer.
Circumstances never give faith its object. It is the word of God that does that. Never let circumstances and appearances take the eye of faith off its object.
"Bring you out of this land" assumes the people are somewhere they do not belong.
Joseph had been long in Egypt; he saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. They were thoroughly established in the land of Egypt. To nature nothing looked more unlikely than that a time would ever come when they would leave Egypt for a land they had never seen. But faith rises above things seen and refuses to reason the way nature does. Faith sees that though the people of God may stay for a time in the land of Egypt, it is not the land of rest that God has promised for His people. Being strangers in Egypt may form part of God's ways with His people, but it has no place in God's purpose for His people.
Joseph's rank in Egypt did not dull his hope.
No splendour in Egypt dimmed the light of promise to his faith. The man nearest to the throne of the world is a stranger. He looks for resurrection, and he expects Israel's restoration to the land according to the oath God swore to their fathers.
Joseph's certainty rests on three names: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
God will visit His people in grace to bring them out of Egypt. Just as surely, He will stretch out His hand in mighty delivering power to bring them into the land of His purpose … This good land, with all its blessing and glory, unrolled before the faith of the dying Joseph. God's own unconditional promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob makes it sure. Joseph is dying, but no shadows darken the hour of his passing.
Joseph backed his words with an oath about his bones, and Scripture records the outcome.
When Joseph lay dying, the natural eye saw little chance that his people would ever leave Egypt. But this dying saint rested on the sure word and promise of God … Years had passed away — nearly four hundred. Then God did visit His people. He remembered the oath, and the bones of the patriarch went with them when they left Egypt.
Another writer draws the pattern for anyone finishing a life of service:
As a faithful servant, he closes his course, testifying to the proper object of hope. While he lived, he served the people of God fully, according to their need. When he was dying, he led them to the only true prospect and hope of their souls — the inheritance of the promised land.
- Visit — Joseph's whole confidence rests on one promised action of God: He will come for His people. The servant dies; the living God remains.
- Vision — Faith saw slavery coming while Goshen was still sunny. God's word, not the current outlook, told Joseph what was ahead.
- Out — Egypt could be part of God's ways with His people, but never part of His purpose. Comfort there was temporary lodging, not home.
- In — God had already sworn the land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That oath fixed the destination, so no shadow fell on Joseph's deathbed.
- Kept — Four hundred years later God came for His people, kept His oath, and Joseph's bones travelled with them. A dying believer's last work is to point others to that hope.
And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will certainly visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones hence.
Joseph's last recorded act is not a farewell but an oath. He makes his family swear to carry his body out of Egypt — a promise no one could keep for centuries.
Joseph's confidence no longer rests on man. It rests on the God who lives on after he dies.
So he speaks no longer of man and man's small world, but of God — the living God, His faithfulness, His power, and His land. "I die," says Joseph. The life of the man who had saved other lives by a great deliverance is fast slipping away. But if Joseph dies, God lives. If Joseph departs, God remains. And into the hands of the living and unchanging God he commends his brothers. Death may take him from them, yet he can say with the fullest assurance of faith, "God will surely visit you." The living God is their unfailing resource in the presence of the dying Joseph.
Jacob asked for burial with his fathers, and he got it. Joseph asks for something else.
"By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones." He firmly charged his sons not to bury him with his fathers, as Jacob asked and received. Instead they were to embalm him, as the pledge that they would leave Egypt in God's time for the land of promise. No splendour in Egypt dimmed the light of promise to his faith. The man nearest to the throne of the world is a stranger. He looks for resurrection, and he expects Israel's return to the land, just as God swore to their fathers.
Joseph's oath rests on God's promise, not on the odds.
Joseph had taken an oath of the children of Israel in dependence upon God. He believed, and so he spoke. He trusted God, so he could never be ashamed. To the natural eye, when Joseph was dying, there was little chance of his people leaving Egypt. But this dying saint rested on the sure word and promise of God. So with confidence he "gave directions concerning his bones." Nearly four hundred years passed. Then God did visit His people, Israel remembered the oath, and the bones of the patriarch went with them in their exodus.
The unburied body preached to every generation that carried it.
His bones are not to be left in Egypt. What a witness to the Israelites the coffin of Joseph must have been through the long centuries! It reminded them always that not even death can stop the living God from doing all He pleases and carrying out His purpose for His people. So, keeping the oath made to Joseph, when at last they leave Egypt, "Moses took the bones of Joseph with him" (Ex. 13:19). Those bones still witnessed to faith in God through the forty years in the wilderness. And when at last they reach the land of promise, they bury his body in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor (Joshua 24:32). There he sleeps in the dust of the earth until he awakes to everlasting life and stands in his lot at the end of days.
Care for a dead body here is a confession about the future.
The patriarchs of the Jewish family all put special value on their dead bodies. They were laid up with great care at Machpelah. That care and zeal was their confession of a sure and certain hope of resurrection. But they connected resurrection with the land of Canaan. And so Jacob and Joseph, who died in Egypt, arranged for their bones to be carried over and laid in Canaan. This tells us that their hope of resurrection was one with their hope of finally possessing the promised land.
Genesis ends with no grave for Joseph. One writer turns that open ending toward our own walk.
Now Joseph himself departs; but we have not lost him: here is an exception to everything else we have seen. He is not to be buried. Why? In this book there is no thought of burial at all. By faith he sees Israel's future departure from Egypt. When God visits them and they set out as pilgrims, they are to carry his bones with them on their pilgrimage. He is no longer dead, but living. Even so, are we not also told to be "always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies"?
- Visit. Joseph dies; God does not. "God will surely visit you" hands his brothers over to the living God as their one unfailing resource.
- Pledge. He refuses burial with his fathers. He asks them to embalm him instead, so his body stands as a pledge that Israel will leave Egypt in God's time.
- Witness. The coffin travelled with Israel for centuries. It kept reminding them that death cannot stop God from carrying out His purpose.
- Hope. He wanted his bones in Canaan. That was his confession of resurrection hope, tied to the land God promised.
- Kept. Nearly four hundred years later, Moses took the bones with him. Israel buried them in the land Jacob had bought. A faithful God honoured the oath of a dying man.