We saw last week the patriarchal blessings that were given by Jacob to the sons of Joseph and then to his 12 sons prior to his death. And then we saw that great moment where on the the precipice of his own passing from this life. He desires not to be buried in Egypt, but rather to kind of give external confirmation of the hope that he has in the fulfillment of God's promises. He wants to be buried in the land of Canaan, in the promised land. We'll pick up now in chapter 50 as Jacob has died and mourning commences. And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. And forty days were fulfilled for him, for so are fulfilled the days of embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him three score and ten days. And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, Behold, I die. In my grave, which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me. Now, therefore, let me go up, I pray you, and bury my father, and I will come again. Pharaoh said, Go up and bury your father according as he made you swear. And Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house. Only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great company. And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan. And there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation. And he made a mourning for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, this is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians. Therefore the name of it was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them. For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying place of Ephron the Hittite before Mamre. And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father after he had buried his father. I'll stop there for just a minute. So there are some really remarkable things in the first half of this chapter. Not all of which we're going to belabor. This won't be our primary emphasis today. The second half of the chapter will be. But I do think it's worthwhile pointing out some of the lessons that we learn in these latter chapters of the book of Genesis. Lessons that we learn elsewhere in scripture, by the way, but lessons that are often overlooked. A lot of times when people are studying the Bible, they're studying for the purpose of maybe knowing more of God and knowing how they ought to live. And those are good reasons. Those are things that we ought to study the Bible in order to learn. There's another lesson that we ought to learn from Scripture that we don't seem, it seems to me, I've got a very limited sample size maybe, but it doesn't seem to me that we often focus much attention on this lesson, and that is how we ought to die. Not just how we ought to live, but how we ought to die. There's a lot of information in the Bible about that. We live in a culture and in a society that doesn't like to think about death, that doesn't like to anticipate death, and yet death will be a reality for us all unless the Lord returns for us first. Everyone in this room is going to die. And in fact, we are born for this. We are born to die. Our whole life is anticipating that. Our whole life is to be lived in view of that, rather than ignoring it, fearing it, pretending that it's not a reality. Scripture would teach us to recognize it, and in some respects, to embrace that reality, knowing that death has been defeated by Christ in His resurrection, and transformed for the believer. It has now become an instrument whereby we enter into the presence of God. An unbeliever has great reasons to fear death. The believer has none. And yet, death is an enemy. And sometimes Christians need to be reminded of this, that they will begin to learn the lessons in scripture that death has been defeated, death has been transformed, the believer is passing from the present evil age into the very presence of their risen Lord, and this is a great thing, we have a great hope Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. That great cry in Revelation chapter 16 gives us great hope, great confidence. And yet, sometimes Christians have to be reminded that death is still an enemy. Death is something that we should still grieve and mourn. That even though there is a sense in which, yes, we accept and even embrace the reality of our death, it's not as though we view death now as a friend. It is an enemy that has had its teeth pulled. It is a pain that God has now eased, but it doesn't make it good. Death is not good. Death is evil. And yet, God brings forth good even from that evil. And so one of the things that you see in scripture is that God's people recognize the horror of death. Not in the way that the world does. The world recognizes the horror of death and says, we want to do everything possible to avoid it. We want to do everything within our power to prolong life, sometimes well beyond any hope of recovery or any quality of life, because death is such a horror that we want to avoid it at all costs. And in the meantime, the rest of us are going to pretend like we're never going to die. We're going to live as if death is not a certainty. But let me tell you something, death is a certainty. Unless the Lord returns, death will come to us all. That's not a healthy way of thinking about death. It's not a healthy way of living your life, and it's certainly not a biblical one. Yes, ma'am? Yes, absolutely. There's a tremendous hope, absolutely, that lies on the other side of that, right? And so we have to see that great hope and long for that great hope and yet recognize that death will claim us. on the journey to receiving that hope and entering into that blessedness. So there's a balance here. Are you beginning to get that idea? There's a balance in how we think about death. We don't ignore it. We don't fear it. There is a sense even in which we welcome it, and yet we hate it. We abhor it. We don't see it as a good, we see it as an evil that God has made into an instrument of good. Death is an enemy. The fear of death, the fear of death is something that we have been delivered from by God's grace, Hebrews chapter 2 says. Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, right? But we still experience that fear, and this is something important is to recognize that when the Bible says that we're called to walk by faith, not by fear, it doesn't mean that we don't ever experience fear. It means that even in the face of that which we fear, we trust God. So we may feel the fear of death. We may experience the fear of death. The reality is, again, Hebrews 2, 14 down through 18, Jesus in his incarnation and by means of his atoning work has delivered us from bondage to the fear of death. The believer, not the unbeliever, right? Part of having a biblical perspective on this is recognizing the importance of mourning. That mourning is not bad. Mourning is the proper response to death. Some Christians almost seem to have the idea that mourning itself is bad, is wrong in some way. Well, maybe if you had more faith, you wouldn't be so sad. I don't know that many people are quite that callous as to say it that way, but I've sure heard a lot of people say things that seem to suggest that's what they think. Though that's not a biblical perspective on it at all. A Christian should mourn death. We should mourn the reality of this curse of sin. Now, we do not grieve as those without hope, Paul says, 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13 to 18. We do not mourn as those who have no hope, and yet we do mourn, we do sorrow, we do weep. Paul says in Romans 12 that we are to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. There is a time to do both. There is a time to do both. I'm at the risk of offending someone. I'm going to say something here that I don't want you to misunderstand. This is kind of like talking about the whole burial and cremation thing, right? Just listen to what I'm saying and take from it what you will. I am not a fan of celebrations of life. Now, I've been the minister and officiant at many of them. This is not a sin or righteousness issue. Don't hear me saying that. But I am not a fan of referring to funerals as celebration of life. And there is a reason why. In the event of mourning, there needs to be sorrow. There may be joy in that moment as well. Because Paul says, for me, to live is Christ, to die is gain. What a blessed hope. But it seems like some Christians are afraid to cry. They're afraid to mourn. as if this is going to make me less spiritual. Well, I know they're in a better place. Well, of course I know they're in a better place. Praise God for that. I wish I was there with them. It's okay for me to be sad about that. It's right for me to weep when someone that I love is claimed by that curse. Even if I know that Christ has them, even if I know that they are being comforted in his presence, right then, it's right for me to weep. It's a human thing, but it's also a godly thing. There's a godly way to grieve. Here's another reason I'm not a big fan of celebrations of life. When we celebrate life, we typically, maybe this is not always the case, but we typically have our focus upon the person that has died. That shouldn't be the focus when someone has died. The focus should be on Christ. When we have a funeral, There are two things that we want to do. We want to offer comfort to the family, reminding them of good times and why we are grateful that God gave us this person for the time that we had them, and we want to preach the gospel. We want to point people to the one who is the reason that we have hope. Some of you, I don't know if any of you have heard me preach a funeral. I preach a lot of funerals. But when I preach a funeral, I try to always honor the person who has recently died briefly. Briefly. I especially like it when one of the family will stand up and talk about what they remember about their mom or dad or brother or sister or whatever, because that's far more personal than their pastor doing that. But try to acknowledge the good things that can and should be said in that moment, and then to say, here is the reason that we have hope today, if we have any hope at all. It is not because our dearly departed loved one was a good person. It's not because he was a church-going man, or she was a generous woman, or they were very kind. That's not the reason we have hope, unless we're legalists. The reason we have hope, if we have any hope at all, is because of Jesus Christ. Because He is good, because He is gracious, because He is the Lord of salvation. And what is our comfort in life and in death? That I am His, and He is mine. We point people to the Lord. But you see, if we don't make space for mourning in that hour of death and in that period after death, if we don't make space for that, we're going to lose the opportunity for those kind of reflections, for that kind of meditation. If we are so quick to move past the sorrow that we want to simply celebrate what good there is, we're robbing ourselves. Now, is that a sinful thing? Not necessarily a sinful thing. But is it robbing us of a very good thing that God has given us an opportunity to do? I think so. Look at the mourning that these men, and Joseph in particular, The mourning that they participate in for Joseph's father, Jacob. He fell upon his father's face, wept upon him, kissed him. commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. They embalmed him for 40 days. There are two different processes of embalming depending on your status within Egyptian society. This is the full version, right? This is the VIP embalming process, right? Jacob was mummified, right? His body is preserved. and so are fulfilled the days of embalming. The Egyptians wept for him three score and ten days." Seventy days there is national mourning in Egypt because the father of the prime minister has died. Now, you may say, well, a lot of that 70 days is just kind of outward ceremonial, official, flags are at half-mast, officials are wearing a little pin on their jacket. I don't know what it looks like in ancient Egyptian culture, but you're right. There is a formality to that. There is a ceremony to that. Not all of these people knew Jacob. Not all of these people had any particular concern for Jacob. They didn't love him personally. And yet, do you see the importance of that? Do you see the importance of honoring one who has died and honoring the reality that he has died? Not moving on quickly. When the days of weeping were past, Joseph asked permission from Pharaoh to carry the body to Canaan. And not only does Joseph and his family go, representatives from Pharaoh's administration go. the elders of the people, members of the cabinet. There is this huge Egyptian caravan. In fact, among the children of Jacob, only the small children and servants, only the livestock and herds stay behind. Why do you think that's mentioned, by the way? Have you thought about this? Who's writing this history? According to Jesus, Moses wrote the book of Genesis, right? I take that as pretty good authority, right? Moses is writing this, presumably in the period of the wandering in the wilderness. He's got a lot of time. you know, on his hands. And he's writing during a generation of people who were slaves in Egypt while they are still alive. They could not have done this. In fact, this was one of the very issues that was contested by Moses and Aaron in Pharaoh's court prior to the Exodus. They said, let us go into the wilderness three days journey to worship. And Pharaoh would not allow it. Do you see the freedom that they have during Joseph's lifetime? Do you see how different circumstances were? Not only are the children of Israel allowed to go back to the land of Canaan en masse, representatives from the government are going with them and mourning with them. They came to the threshing floor of Atad, verse 10, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation and made a mourning for his father seven days. They didn't do things quickly, right? You know, you didn't have a funeral and it's over in 45 minutes. By the way, I'm not suggesting that we literally have seven-day funerals. I hope you understand. But I am suggesting that we recognize the significance of this moment. By the way, I would say the same thing if we were talking about marriage. The spiritual significance, the spiritual context of marrying or burying the people of God. Let the pagans bury their dead and move on with their lives the next day. But let the people of God recognize the hope that we have in death and the reality that death is a reminder of the curse. You should never have a funeral for a believer where the gospel is not being preached. Because the reason that we bury people is because of the fall. And the reason that we bury them in hope because of Jesus Christ, and that needs to be brought.