February 12, 2018: Day 49 – Genesis 49

Then Jacob blessed his sons with a suitable blessing.  Did you read some of these blessings?  Here is an excerpt from some of them: “You shall no longer excel…”, “May I never come into their council…”.  It seems like he begins his blessings for three of his children with curses, and then loosens up and blesses his other nine children with what we would call real blessings.  Joseph absolutely gets bombarded with a blessing that not many would be able to uphold.  But he has big shoulders, he is able to carry that blessing as he seems to have carried it already up to now.  It really does seem that upon the shoulders of Joseph does the nation of Israel, does the person of Jacob, place its trust.  

Jacob makes it clear where he is to be buried, because I am sure that there is a part of him that is afraid that he is going to be put in one of those gigantic pyramids instead of being buried with his whole family in a simple way near Bethlehem.  Okay, so I’m making some of that up, but I could see him being concerned for that, especially since he gives directives over and over again where he needs to be buried.  It was important for them that they be buried along with the rest of their ancestors.

For us it is not important where or how we are buried.  We believe that once we die then we are with Jesus and what remains has no eternal impact on us.  If we are cremated or buried across the sea, or even in the sea, if we are far away from our family, none of that matters.  We will all be with Jesus once we die.