In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the death and burial of Jacob as described in Genesis 49:33. Jacob's final action was to command his sons and express his desire to be buried in the cave at Macbela. Pastor Chuck emphasizes the importance of patience and faith in God's plan, even when we don't understand it. He encourages listeners to trust that God is in control and working, even in difficult times. The sermon concludes with the reminder that God is preparing believers for eternal life in His kingdom, and that we can find comfort in knowing that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today we'll be continuing with the death and burial of Jacob So, let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis, chapter 49, verse 33 as Pastor Chuck Smith provides us with the details And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons he drew his feet upon into his bed he breathed his last and was gathered to his people So, this was his final action looking around, pronouncing these prophecies and then the commanding of the sons Look, take me back and bury me in the cave there at Machpelah And that's it Interestingly enough, historically we have already covered more than half of the time from Adam to Christ So, that means we have, you know, only 1600 years or so left until the coming of Christ So, interesting, in the book of Genesis we cover more than half of the history of the Old Testament as far as chronology is concerned Now, from Exodus on through to Malachi we'll be covering the other 1600 and so many years So, historically we've already covered the broadest area Then Joseph fell on his father's face Remember, God said to Jacob when he had stopped at Beersheba to pray whether or not he should continue his journey into Egypt He offered the sacrifice and God spoke to him in the night vision and God said to him, go down to Egypt you'll see your son and he shall close your eyes that is, he will be there and will be the one to perform upon you this final tender loving act of closing your eyes when you die So, Joseph fell on his father's face He wept over him and kissed him And then Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians to embalm his father So the physicians embalmed Israel Forty days were required for him For such are the days required for those who are embalmed And the Egyptians mourned for him for seventy days So, interestingly enough, this art of embalming which the Egyptians had developed to this tremendous skill and we today do not know how in the world they were able to embalm the bodies to preserve them as they did But it wasn't an easy process it took forty days to do so So, not everybody was embalmed just the pharaohs and all were about the only ones who were embalmed the people of great prominence Jacob was embalmed, forty days in the job Seventy days they mourned for him and when the days of mourning were passed Joseph spoke to the household of pharaohs saying If now I have found favor in your eyes please speak in the hearing of pharaohs saying My father made me swear saying Behold, I am dying in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan there you shall bury me Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father and I will come back Probably the pharaoh was fearful if they would all leave, maybe they won't come back and Joseph had proved to be very valuable to the pharaoh and thus the pharaoh would be reluctant to see him move back to the land of Canaan at this point Now it is interesting that Joseph just doesn't go to the pharaoh himself he goes to those in the pharaoh's household and say go speak to the pharaoh for me and tell him that I had to swear to my father that I bury him back there in the cave that he had dug for himself and so please I'd like permission to go and I will come back again and so the pharaoh said go up and bury your father as he made you swear so Joseph went to bury his father and with him went up all of the servants of pharaoh so there was a huge entourage from Egypt the elders of his house and all of the elders of the land of Egypt they made this trek together as well as the house of Joseph his brothers his father's house Ephraim and Manasseh of course were pretty old by this time Joseph was 56 years old when Jacob died so Ephraim and Manasseh were there in their twenties so his sons no doubt went with him the brothers only their little ones the grandchildren their flocks and their herds they left in the land of Goshen and there went up with them both chariots and horsemen tremendous gathering and they came to the threshing floor of Etad so they went past the Red Sea on over to the eastern side of the Dead Sea and up on the eastern side of the Dead Sea till they came to the Jordan River much the same route that their fathers will take later under Joshua crossing the Jordan River and then making their way on to Hebron where the cave of Machpelah was where they were to bury him so they came to Etad which is actually on the other side of Jordan in the area that today is called Jordan it was the area of Moab at that earlier time and so they came to the threshing floor of Etad which is beyond the Jordan and they mourned there with a very great and solemn lamentation and he observed seven days of mourning for his father and when the inhabitants of the land the Canaanites saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Etad they said this is a grievous mourning of the Egyptians therefore they call the name of the place Abel Mizrim which of course means the mourning of the Egyptians which is beyond Jordan so his sons did for him just as he had commanded them for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre which Abraham had bought from Ephraim the Hittite as a property for a burial place and after he buried his father Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father so the entourage returned now when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead they said aha perhaps now Joseph will hate us and actually repay us for all of the evil which we did to him he just waited until the old man died now we've got it it's interesting that this guilt complex hangs on you know look how many years this guilt is hung on Joseph was 17 years old when they sold him as a slave he is now 56 years old 39 years these guys have been suffering the guilt feelings for what they did guilt is so hard to get rid of it hangs on the only thing that can remove that guilt from your mind is the blood of Jesus Christ which washes and cleanses us from all sin and so here they were still feeling guilty and he's going to get even now so they sent to Joseph saying before your father died he commanded saying thus shall you say to Joseph I beg you please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin for they did evil to you now please forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father and Joseph wept when they spoke to him so they said dad told us you know before he died to come to you and to ask you please forgive our sin the evil that we did and Joseph couldn't take it he started weeping then his brothers also went when the messengers came and told him this he started weeping so the brothers came in and they fell down before his face and they said behold we are your servants we're at your mercy we sold you as a slave now you know we're guilty we'll be your slaves Joseph said to them do not be afraid for am I in the place of God interesting in the New Testament we read and Joseph didn't even have the New Testament we read vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord avenge not yourself God said vengeance is mine Joseph said am I in the place of God that is am I in the place to take vengeance that's God's place judgment is God's place am I in the place of God as for you you meant it for evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as is this day to save many people alive now your intentions were bad but God used your bad intentions to work his good so often we find God reversing things person does things with wrong motives but God is able still to use it for his glory don't be afraid I'm not in the place of God I'm not going to try and take vengeance against you I know you intended evil for me but God intended good now the interesting thing though is that though God intended good Joseph went through several years of real suffering and real testing before the good came out our problem really is waiting upon God waiting for the full cycle seven years or so that Joseph was serving in the house of Potiphar as a slave you probably would have been plotting how to run away you wouldn't wait for the full purpose of God to be revealed the three years or more that he was in jail you would have been planning an escape I don't like to wait on God I don't like this part of the story let's get to the good part we want to jump into the last chapter where they lived happily ever after I don't want to go through all of the drama and the hardship and the trials getting to this place I want the goodies now but yet the purposes of God are not always accomplished immediately in our lives we do not see what God has intended it was years before Joseph could actually see what God had intended the purpose and the plan of God and often times in our own lives it is years before we see the real purpose of God for some of the hardships that we've endured some of the grief that we've experienced some of the sorrows that we've had to go through and during the time we don't understand when we find ourselves complaining against God God, why? Why? Why? and so often God doesn't tell us why He just says, wait on me, child but I don't like to hear Him say that I get upset when God says, wait on the Lord, be of good courage wait, I say, on the Lord don't tell me that tell me what you're doing when's this thing going to change? when are we going to get a turn for the better? when are we going to see the reasons and the purposes for these things? I want to know, I want to know now, I don't want to wait and yet I have to wait now the tragedy is that so many times people jump out of the fire they won't wait as in Hebrews the writer said, but you have need of patience that after you have done the will of God you might obtain the promise wait now, the only way I can wait is to have that faith in God that He is in control and that He is working I don't know what He's doing I don't know what His plan is but I have committed my ways unto the Lord I've committed my life to Him and this looks to me like it's the end it looks like it's all over but it's all in God's hands and God is in control and God is going to work and when we see the next chapter we're going to rejoice in the Lord now I don't know what twists and turns are yet in the path all I know is when I get to the last chapter they live happily ever after and one day I'm going to enter in to God's glorious eternal kingdom and God is preparing me for that day and the test and the trials and the hardships that I go through now are only preparation time for that day when I shall be with Him world without end and He shall be revealing unto me the exceeding richness of His love and mercy towards me through Christ Jesus my Lord and so I keep my eyes upon the goal upon the future upon the end of the story for God has given us a beautiful insight to the end of the story and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever that's how the story ends now what I have to go through to get to the house of the Lord He's in control because all the way along He is leading me in the path of righteousness for His name's sake He's leading my life there's not a turn there's not a twist in the path but what He isn't there leading me in those twists and in those turns and though I out of my own short-sightedness my inability to see beyond the curve I say but Lord are you sure this is the right path are you sure you know what you're doing Lord and He says trust me son hard to do Lord trust me son so Joseph could see the hand and the plan of God through the whole thing he wasn't about to try and take revenge or vengeance it was God's working this was what God had ordained and planned yes your motives were evil your heart was evil when you did it but God was in the whole thing and God was planning to save the nation and many people now therefore do not be afraid for I will provide for you and your little ones of course Joseph being a beautiful type of Christ and when Jesus comes again and the nation of Israel realizes at that time their eyes are open and they realize and they begin to mourn over Him they begin to weep over really over themselves and their blindness that they should so long be without the Savior the Messiah that God had sent and they look upon Him whom they have pierced and they say what are the meaning of these wounds in your hands and they grieve and mourn Jesus said I know that you intended it for evil but God meant it for good it was necessary that I die that the world might be saved now don't be afraid I'll provide for you and He's going to take them in and there's going to be the forgiveness and the washing and the cleansing and the renewing of the grace of God for this people now tragically and unfortunately many people have taken the position of God and have sought to bring recriminations against the Jews because of what they did to Jesus no no no you've got to see beyond that this was all a part of God's plan when Pilate said to Jesus don't you speak to me don't you know I have power to put you to death he said you don't have any power but what God has given my father has given the power Jesus said I have the power no man takes my life from me I lay my life down it's all of the purpose and the plan of God and when you realize that God is working even though there may be malevolent type of motives of the people that are working against you God is working it all for your good for all things work together for good to those who love God so Joseph dwelt in Egypt he and his father's household and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation that is his great-grandchildren and the children of Macher the son of Manasseh were also brought up on Joseph's knees so he had the privilege of bouncing his great-grandkids on his knees and playing with them watching them grow oh how blessed Joseph said to his brethren and of course how many of them at that time were still alive we don't know but some of them no doubt still alive he called his brothers together those that were still there and he said I'm dying but God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here so Joseph died being a hundred and ten years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt but he had made mention when you God's going to get you out of this place you're going to be delivered now that deliverance wasn't going to take place for another 300 years but when you leave take these bones with you now this act of faith was enough to get him into the hall of fame there is a hall of fame for the believers those of faith Hebrews the 11th chapter and by faith Joseph when he was dying made mention of his bones the faith that God is one day going to bring us out of this land and he's going to give us the land that he promised to Abraham that faith in the promises of God and so when you leave don't leave my bones here take them out of here I want to be buried in the land of promise tremendous really all of his life and all of the wealth and all of his possessions were there in Egypt but his heart was in the land of promise where's your heart? is it in the land of promise? I hope so we'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the Bible as Pastor Chuck Smith begins to guide us through the book of Exodus in our next lesson and we do hope you'll make plans to join us but right now I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one you can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives and they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details simply call 1-800-272-WORD and phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time once again our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673 and for your added convenience you can order online anytime when you go to www.thewordfortoday.org and while you're there be sure to browse through the additional resources that include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs and so much more once again that's www.thewordfortoday.org and for those of you who still prefer to write you can use our mailing address which is The Word for Today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 and be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence and now on behalf of The Word for Today we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support and be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck Smith begins his verse-by-verse study through the book of Exodus that's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today now once again here's Pastor Chuck Smith God bless you give you a beautiful week may the hand of the Lord be your strength as He holds you as He strengthens you as He blesses and as He guides you in His path of righteousness may you experience a touch of God's love the power of His Spirit and may you be more than a conqueror through the power that He gives to you in His Son Jesus Christ Come on, just tell her I can't Yes you can, say it I love... No, I can't Really? I love you, I love you, I love you Hmm, what says I love you best that costs less than sending flowers doesn't have a thousand chocolate calories and yet I love you so much yet as priceless as everlasting life give up? this year The Word for Today is pleased to offer you Pastor Chuck's new love book at less than half the retail price we know you want to share your love with others this Valentine's season so we've made it easy and affordable to give the gift of love a gift that will have eternal benefits for more information on this special offer of Pastor Chuck's love book call The Word for Today toll free at 1-800-272-WORD or visit us online at thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California