“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
– Genesis 50:20
Hi James and Ellen,
What does it mean to you that you will die one day? Would you prefer to have your corpse interred, entombed or cremated when you die? If your preference is to be interred or entombed when you die, where would you like to have your bodies buried or entombed? When your grandmaa and grandpaa were South America Mission field team missionaries in Bolivia and OC International field team missionaries in Guatemala, your grandmaa and grandpaa expected that if either your grandmaa or grandpaa died that your grandmaa or grandpaa would be buried in the country in which they were living at the time. Your grandmaa and grandpaa now do not know where they will be buried if either your grandmaa or grandpaa die. Your dad’s grandma and grandpa on your grandpaa’s side of the family are buried side by side in the cemetery that is a half a mile west – on the north side of the highway, that goes past Volga, South Dakota. Your dad’s grandma and grandpa on your grandmaa’s side of the family are buried side by side in Gracelawn Memorial Park Cemetery – that is east off North DuPont Highway, in New Castle, Delaware. In November of 1963, your grandmaa’s dad died of a cardiac arrest the evening of the same day that your grandpaa asked your grandmaa’s dad for his okay to marry his daughter. Your grandmaa’s ma died in January of 1971. Your grandmaa, grandpaa and dad made the roundtrip to Wilmington, Delaware from Sioux Falls, South Dakota and back a couple of weeks earlier to spend several days with your grandmaa’s ma. Your grandmaa’s ma at this time was in the Wilmington Memorial Hospital with terminal colon cancer. After spending his last couple of years in failing health, your grandpaa’s dad died in June of 2003 in the United Retirement Center in Brookings, South Dakota. Your grandpaa’s ma died last August after her health deteriorated quickly over a year’s time after a couple of strokes.
Genesis 50 reports on Jacob’s death. Jacob – who was renamed Israel or the ‘one who has prevailed with God’, died about 3900 years ago. Before Jacob died, Jacob made his kid Joseph swear an oath promising that he would take his dad’s body to the land of Canaan – which is the country where Jacob was born, and that Joseph and his other kids would bury him in the tomb that is in a cave that is in the field of Machpelah – a field that is located near Mamre. Abraham – who was Jacob’s grandpa, had bought the cave from Ephron the Hittite to be a burial place for his extended family. After Joseph had Jacob embalmed by embalming specialists – something that took forty days to do, and after Jacob’s dying had been properly mourned for seventy days, Joseph sent a message to Egypt’s Pharaoh asking the Pharaoh for his okay to take his dad’s body to the place where Jacob wanted to be buried – which was where his dad Isaac, his grandpa Abraham and grandma Sarah had been interred. When Jacob died, Jacob was living in an area called Goshen in the country of Egypt. The walking distance between the area of Goshen and where Jacob wanted to be intombed in the cave of Machpelah – which was near the Jordon River in the land of Canaan, had to have been at least 300 miles. Your grandpaa thinks that it probably took at least two weeks to make the trek from the area of Goshen to the cave of Machpelah. Joseph did not go alone to bury his dad; Joseph’s bros went with him as well as dignitaries from the Pharaoh’s court and from the country of Egypt. Pharaoh also had horsemen with chariots travel with them – making Jacob’s funeral procession a large procession. After arriving at where Jacob wanted to be buried, a week was spent at the threshing floor of Atad – which your grandpaa assumes had to have been near where the cave of Machpelah was located, in a solemn ceremony at which time the death of Jacob and the final goodbye to Jacob was loudly and bitterly mourned and lamented.
Once Jacob’s body had been entombed in a tomb in the cave of Machpelah, Jacob’s kids – other than Joseph, realized that they no longer had somebody who could stop their bro – Joseph, who they had sold years earlier to a passing camel caravan of merchants, from exercising a possible pent-up ire on them for what they had irresponsibly done to him. When Joseph’s bros asked Joseph to forgive them for what they had done to him in hopes that Joseph would . . . , verse 20 is Joseph’s response, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Joseph understood that his ending up in country of Egypt – even though he probably had to wrestle with some negative, hurt feelings towards his bros when they put him in a dry well and when they sold him to a passing camel caravan of Midianite traders, was where God wanted him to be so that his insight and wisdom could be used by a Pharaoh to initiate programs for the storing up of food supplies for a pending famine. A famine did happen. The famine was so widespread that it affected the land area where Joseph’s extended family lived. Joseph’s extended family was able to survive the horrific famine because of where God had Joseph end up living. Joseph would still have to make it through some untenable moments – and he did, before God blessed mightily this optimistic dude who always opted for taking the high road. God’s divine schema is always unfolding flawlessly. How have you been seeing and are seeing God unfolding His predestined plan in your lives?
Genesis 50 (986)