Now, we turn in the Bible this morning to the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible to the last chapter, actually 49 verse 28, and next week we conclude our study in the book of Genesis. I have to get something off my chest before we begin here. Sometimes as a pastor you say things that you make mistakes with words and I tend to do that quite a bit. Last week in Genesis chapter 20 actually 49 verse 25 in the blessing of Joseph by the God of your father who will help you by the almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above blessings of the deep that crouches beneath blessings of the breasts and of the womb I guess everyone told me I said beasts so I want you to know I don't intentionally do that there are a million things going through your mind when you preach you're bound to get words mixed up but hopefully it'll help you pay attention all the more so Genesis chapter 49 this morning beginning at verse 28 and we will read through 50 verse 14 let's give our attention this morning to the word of the lord all these are the 12 tribes of israel this is what their father said to them as he blessed them blessing each with the blessing suitable to him then he commanded them and said to them i am to be gathered to my people bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah to the east of Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. Then they buried Abraham, there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites. When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. And when the days of weeping for him were passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die. In my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me. Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father, then I will return. And Pharaoh answered, Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear. So Joseph went up to bury his father with him when all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household and the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household, only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation. And he made a mourning for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, this is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians. Therefore, the place was named Abel Mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. May the Lord bless the hearing of this word. As we become very close to concluding our study in the book of Genesis, do you find it a coincidence that this book is ending with death? It's an interesting thought, something to think about, because the book began with life. and the book is ending with death and it's almost as if we the author here moses is reminding us of the tragic problem and seeing all of god's goodness throughout our study of genesis the tragic problem that still humanity faced at this point still the family of abraham faced at this point and it is the reality of death from dust you were taken to dust you shall return said the lord in the curse of genesis 3 everyone here is going to die that's not something that we american christians have learned to deal well with if you were ever to study past cultures and how they dealt with death and how they looked at death, you will find that cultures were really driven by their view of death and how they approached oncoming death. What did they think of death and how did they go forward with death? Throughout history, you had one writer outlines three different approaches to death, three different classifications in history. And he writes that the first was the death accepting approach. You saw this in Greek culture somewhat where ironically Socrates would welcome death. Then you have the death-defying approach, which was I will overcome death. I will beat death. In some ways you could classify ancient Egypt with that view we'll see in a moment. Then you have, this author says, the death-defying approach. I'm not going to act as if death is a reality. I'm not going to act as if it'll ever come. When society moves to deny the reality of death, what really happens is it does everything in its power to avoid it. That's America. We are a combination, a strange combination of being a death-defying and a death-denying culture. How is that seen? Well, I pulled up just an article last week on Sam Simon, the founder of the program The Simpsons. He was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and given three to six months to live. Today, here's the article. Simon, 59, continues to defy that original prognosis. Defies it. We defy it until it comes, and then when it comes, we deny it. You know how awkward it is today for me to stand up and say so-and-so has died, we don't say that anymore. It feels so cold to say so-and-so has died. We say they've passed away. They've kind of hopped over death. Think about that. It feels cold, and the thing that you should realize is death is cold. One of the examples that stands out to me the most a few years ago was the death of Farrah Fawcett. When she was diagnosed with cancer, she began treatments, and the doctors announced that she was totally cancer-free. A few months later, it was announced that then she had colorectal cancer. She began to fly all over the world looking for treatments to beat this, constantly crying out to the public for more research on cancer. I mean, how much now do you go to the grocery store and you're tired of somebody asking for a dime to put in for cancer research she wanted to end the struggle she did i mean well toward the end of her struggle she was trying to desperately avoid the end of her struggle she actually had a documentary done on her deathbed where people could watch her progress and where it was all going and she said i want people to find reasoning i want them to find a larger purpose in my suffering she said and here was her purpose here was her message don't give up no matter what they say to you you keep on fighting you can beat it so uh we have cancer walks and we hold ribbons and the language that we get is i am i'm quoting i will i'm strong i'll fight and at some point you stand back from all this and you say fight for what you're gonna die you're not gonna stop that you're still gonna die you are immersed this is why i raised as you are immersed in a death defying and a death denying culture that's that's what you live in and today you'll see it because we're praying for everyone's aches and pains and this is spilled over into christianity everyone's aches and pains as if that's abnormal this is what we do i mean listen to our prayer request it's about everyone's aches and pains what is so important this morning in light of the end of genesis as we deal with this curse that was placed on humanity and God showing us how this is transpiring and what's happening as humanity is dying, what we have this morning is the death of Jacob. And it's remarkable because we're really looking at the way that Jacob approached death. In fact, we have one of the most remarkable deathbed situations, testimonies in the Bible that you'll ever find. And I believe the Lord wanted us to look and learn through this about how saints are to look at this curse how saints his people are to understand death to think about death what you believe about the body matters what you believe about death matters how you approach your oncoming death matters it's what makes you distinctively christian how you view suffering how you handle it and you see this highlighted today in Jacob's testimony it's a beautiful testimony this is textbook on how to die by the way and that's why I gave it the title the creative title a sermon on how to die well it's not that creative but I hope you get the point here we are final death bed scene just like all of his fathers Jacob has come to his hour of death he has passed the blessings the previous chapter remember he blessed his sons he gave the right of the firstborn to Joseph and his sons he passes the blessing to Judah specifically highlighting Judah through whom the Christ would come here he is at the very end of this long life that we've studied he can barely gather himself he can barely lift his feet back up into the bed that's the imagery here Back in chapter 48, we learned that Jacob was sick. Remember, 48, we read that Joseph was told indeed, your father is sick. He's the only one we read of that said that of the patriarchs. He was sick. It's that moment in chapter 48, I've got bad news for you. You've got six months. It's that kind of moment that we get in the life of Jacob. He either had some form of cancer, however we want to call it, the man's life was expiring, and now before us this morning, we've come to the moment of it. We've come to the moment he is going to die. No other saint outside of Christ gets this kind of attention at death. And I can't get over that thought. I can't get over that thought that Father Abraham didn't die all that well. No, he kind of retired and took it easy. Married again. Not that that was wrong. But you just don't have much highlighted about his death. It doesn't say much about his death. There wasn't a lot highlighted there. Isaac's was not finished well. Isaac's life, these are both saints. These are God's saints. But they didn't really finish that well. But Jacob finishes well. And what a message that is. The man who started the worst finishes the well. It just finishes the best. I can't get over that. You have kids who run. You have children who've rebelled. You have people who've defected. Loved ones. Look at this story. That's the most encouraging story we get when we look at the end where you have the spotlight at the end of the book of Genesis put on the most notorious sinner, the heel grabber, finishing like this. It's remarkable that in the middle of the blessings last week, in the middle of the blessings, when Jacob was blessing Dan, we had something very strange happen in the middle of his blessing on Dan. If you look back to verse 17, Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward. I've waited for your salvation, O Lord. And you say, whoa, where does that come from? It's a beautiful cry that in the midst of Dan's blessing, it's as if he breaks out into a prayer and we get right into his heart of something he was feeling at that moment something he was had to express the spirit inspired it at that moment i have waited for your salvation oh lord i love that where did that come from the man's sick all of a sudden he breaks out and says that it's a beautiful cry and what makes it so powerful is when we put all this together which i hope you'll see today it wasn't a cry from deliverance from physical sickness he's not saying i've waited for your salvation from the aid of the egyptian doctors let's fight this it was a cry given in birth through a long struggle of jacob fighting his whole life trying to live by sight and not by faith it was an expression of of what he learned to value, what he had learned to wait for, what he had learned to treasure in this life. His life from the beginning was captured by struggle. His name Jacob meaning deceiver, heel grabber. You know the story. You know the path that he chose. You know the way he ran. You know the choices that he made were wrong. And here he is at the end of his life sick and he's saying, I've waited. I don't know if you read about the sad story of Brittany Maynard. any of you read that she um was the one oregon had passed a law that you can die with dignity and so she moved she had brain cancer 29 years old she moves up to oregon and she wants to die with dignity and a few saturdays ago she took pills and ended her own life so she wouldn't have to suffer did you have any kind of emotion with that any kind of feeling as a Christian, is that right? Is that wrong? What did you think? My answer was that was a tragic story because there was nothing of faith in that. There was nothing of faith in that. Why do I say that? Part of the struggle of this life is learning to wait on the Lord. Part of the struggle of this life is learning to wait on the Lord. Psalmists say it over and over. I've waited, O Lord, for Your salvation. Psalm 29, wait, wait, I say on the Lord. Wait, wait, wait. You don't know how many times I've sat with as a pastor saints on their deathbed and they say to me, I just don't understand. Why doesn't the Lord take me? And why the suffering? And why the hardship? and it's that intense struggle that we face at some point and all the suffering. And it's been a hard one for me as a pastor to address when they're sitting there in the midst of suffering. I'm not suffering. What do you say in the midst of that? I know this, Jacob shows us something today. Jacob shows us something powerful. I'm waiting on you, oh Lord. I'm waiting. All the sufferings that Christians go through, all the sufferings of god's people all of the hardship in our death denying and death defying culture which either says we're going to do all we can to fight it or just take it out so we don't have to experience that you get either of those approaches with this in all of that we as christians have been tempted to live trying to overcome all of that all of the suffering so living trying desperately to prevent it in our lives the obsession with aches and pains that we don't see in them we don't understand in them what god is teaching us i was struck a couple sunday nights ago by something that our belgics said about sin on original sin listen to God doesn't impute sin to His children to condemnation. But by His grace and mercy is He forgives them. Not that they should rest securely in sin. Here it is. But that a sense of this corruption should make believers often to sigh. Sigh. Desiring to be delivered from this body of death what a great statement you realize that the size in this life the sorrows in this life are God's way of training and making us long for the Lord's ultimate deliverance and salvation this is what he's doing and you know it's it's it's at these moments that grace is given more abundantly than you ever would imagine is the Spirit, when you're groaning, intercedes with groanings for you that cannot be uttered and calls out to your God for grace and aid and help as He trains you. When we're always living to overcome that, we miss what God is intended, which when He says our sufferings are but for a moment, but they're working something. They're working in us a far more exceeding weight of eternal glory. One of God's workings through sickness, one of God's workings through hardship and affliction is to produce the sigh that you just heard in the middle of Dan. I've waited. And I want it. We carry in this life the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. He calls us to that. And when he sees fit to having sufficiently trained us in righteousness, when he sees fit to finish the work that he began, he then ends it for us. And don't you want it that way? Don't you want it that way? He's working. And that's where you see this bright spotlight put right here. Look what I did in this man who was such a rebel. Look what I did in this man at the end of his life and you get this kind of response. That's grace. That's God's working. He's not trying to anymore take things his way. He's not trying anymore to do it his way. Here he is, not pressing the hand of God, stealing the birthright, stealing things, now pinned to his bed, trusting in the Lord, waiting on the Lord for his salvation, and that is the most beautiful place to be. a pilgrim who is wanting and longing for everything god promised um william perkins wrote a book on how to die well and we don't have a lot of books that i don't think that would sell well today but a book on how to die well listen to what he says the day of death surpasses the day of your birth your birthday is an entrance into all woe and misery your death day is an entrance into eternal life blessed is the day of death since it brings a freedom from all sin why don't you want that looking at this world looking at your heart. The corrupt nature is abolished. Sanctification's accomplished. So says Perkins, there is a disposition all of us should have as Christians toward death. Three things he says. First, die in faith. That means in the time of death with all your heart, rely completely on God's special love and favor and mercy in Christ as He has told you about your whole life in His Word. I've waited. Second, he says die in obedience. Meaning, when you've come to a place where you have come to a place when you are willing and ready and desire to go out of this world, whenever God calls you without murmur or complaining, when it pleases God to take you. And third, I love this one. Render your souls into the hand of God, the most faithful keeper of all. That's your last duty. He says, this is what Christ did on the cross. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Stephen did the same. You do the same. We should always live prepared for this, he says, because you're not guaranteed you'll have this kind of death. But what I love about what Perkins says is, Number one, the confidence that the Lord wants us to have as we go into death. Number two, notice that he says here to trust him and to accept where he has you. And three, to know that he is the keeper of your souls. Well, that's what we see here with Jacob. We see that kind of confidence. In verse 20, he then gathers all his sons around his bed. I mean, again, textbook. I am, he says, to be gathered to my people. We've repeatedly come across this phrase in Genesis. It's an intriguing phrase that Genesis has introduced us to over and over. Abraham, when he died, it says that he was gathered to his people. When Isaac died, it says Isaac breathed his last. He died and he was gathered to his people old and full of days. Jacob says, that's what's now going to happen to me. What's remarkable is he's not talking about the burial. Notice he makes a distinction there between the gathering and the burial. So, in fact, in verse 33, you'll notice when he dies, it says he's immediately gathered to his people before the burial in the land of Canaan would even take place. Sons, this is what's going to happen to me. I'm going to be gathered to my people. As soon as I die, I go to be with Abraham, Isaac, God's people. No purgatory, no soul sleep. I'm there, immediately entering in. I go there. That's awesome. God put a ticker in your chest to tell you once that stops, it's over. I've always been amazed at that. The thing ticks. It's going to happen. Jacob enters in to glory. I can't imagine after this long struggle of being sick and waiting, all of a sudden when you enter, your soul immediately there is with the spirit of just men, as Hebrews made perfect. I wish I could describe that. I wish I could fully capture it for you. If you ever looked at believers' bodies, I think one of the things that's been hard as a pastor, seminary never trained me for this. I remember the first time I walked into an emergency room and a brother died in front of me. And his body was so weak. and shriveled. And I thought to myself, you know, when you see that, you look at the body and it's wastes away and it's riddled with cancer and some of you, by the end of it, your bodies are just going to be nothing. And you already see it going there. And you say, how long? How long, O Lord? Imagine the moment Christ rises up from the throne because you see, when Stephen died, that's what he did. He got up and he received him right then and there when he was being stoned. Imagine the moment he gets up from the throne and he says, that's it, that's enough. And all the sorrow in a moment is turned into joy. Isaiah 25, he will swallow up death and victory. The Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken and it shall be said in that day lo this is the Lord our God we've waited for him see it he will save us this is the Lord we've waited for him we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation for in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest what do you see from Jacob at the end? Not a desperate trying like Pharaoh to hold on to this life. Not a bitter hurrying to get this life over so you don't have to suffer. But a response of faith that showed in trial patience and in the affliction that God was still training him. That God loved him. And then what I love about this is how he goes forward and demonstrates this very thing to his children. There's one more thing today I'm going to end with that the text shines down. The text is saying, look at this carefully. He commands his children here. And all the children, you can imagine, are around the bed. And the rest of the section then is about Jacob's desire to go back and have his body carried out of Egypt and put in this deposit in this cave of Machpelah where Abraham was buried. He says, and I even went in there and I hewed out a section for me. Fascinating. Abraham's there. Sarah's there. Isaac's there. Rebecca's there. Leah's there. Son, you take my body and you put it there. Why did that matter so much? I go through the Old Testament and it's so fascinating that their bodies mattered at death. It wasn't just the shell that we hear today. People call it their bodies mattered. Why did it matter? He believed the promises. He believed that when the resurrection happened, all those bodies would get up out of the grave together. That's why. It was faith. All of them wanted to be buried together because they believed that they would inherit the land together as God's people in newly resurrected bodies raised up. So when you die, the Spirit goes to be with the Lord. And one day when He comes again, you know what's going to happen. Paul described it in Thessalonians, that the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, then the dead in Christ will rise first. They are getting up out of the ground, brand new. And they're going to be reunited with the soul that's with the Lord. And then we who are alive, if you're still here, there is a generation that won't die. Maybe you're it. That'd be really exciting. Brand new, you're going to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. Jacob wants something here. Son, I want you to take my body, and I want you, you don't bury me here. I want you to carry it out. Now, this is curious because in verse 33, it says this. After all his instruction about his body, when Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. Right there, he went. Picks up his feet, takes his last breath, and immediately his soul is with the Lord. But did you notice the phrase, after he had commanded his son? When God made his covenant of grace with Abraham, do you remember what he said Abraham would do? I have known Abraham that he may command his children to keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice that I may bring all that I promised upon him. You see this with the saints throughout the Old Testament. When they got together and if the Lord gave them the grace to die at a good old age on the bed with the family around and they gathered their son. And they would speak to their sons. David gives one of the most moving to Solomon when David is dying and he commands him, Be strong. Act like a man. We need to say that today. Observe what the Lord your God requires. Walk in obedience to him. Psalm 72 was his prayer asking for the King Solomon. This was always the concern of the godly at death. Listen, that their children would love the Lord and follow. And I think, look at this morning. Here's one at birth that the Lord puts this sign on. And Wes says, I want everyone to understand it's the Lord's work to save. It's that care of parents that has to be there all the way to the end for their children. What does Jacob do? Take my body back. Why? Why do you want your body to go back? Joseph sits there and doesn't go out until the exodus. Why do you want the body back now, Jacob? Well, what you have in chapter 50 is this great period of mourning that takes place. And it was a funeral. There's nothing wrong with that, by the way. Sometimes I hear messages that act like we can't mourn. Mourn. It's a terrible enemy, but we don't mourn without hope. The Egyptians would do certain things with the body. The Egyptians would take the body, and they were masters at embalming. They had really perfected this art. They would take out the organs. The body was treated with natron. The skin was spices and resin, and then it would be wrapped in linen. And they were masters at this. They even got to the point where they could preserve the hair and the nails and you could open it up and it looks like the person. The question is, why did they do that? They were Proto-Americans. If you made the body look good, that would determine the quality of your eternity. So in other words, you could perfect the body. That's the evidence of how your eternity is going to go. So they kept it pristine and perfect and beautiful. Everyone trying to, you know, surgery it up today to keep it perfect. They just did that after death. Can you imagine? So they did this. Death-defying culture. Joseph has one purpose. We're taking dad's body back. I still haven't answered why. They embalm him. So here's the imagery. They leave Egypt. Joseph's at the front, the elders, the wise men, the elite of Egypt, the families in the middle, and then all the Egyptian chariots and horses are behind. He goes to Pharaoh. Pharaoh says, you can go. That's the path. Here's what's interesting this morning to close this. The normal road to Canaan from Egypt was to go up the Mediterranean and cut over inland. That's the easy, quick way. That's the quick way to go. But I want everyone to look at verse 10. When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation. They made mourning for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, this is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians. Therefore, the place was named Abel Mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah. Why all the detail? Why all the detail? Here's why. The body of Jacob was carried around the eastern side of the Dead Sea. No logical way to go that way. How did they enter the promised land? through the Jordan. The body was carried through the Jordan. It's the only way. It's dress rehearsal for the future. This is the path Israel would go in the future back to the promised land. Jacob gives all these specific instructions. Why did he do that? Because he commanded his sons. He commanded his own exodus out of Egypt, his body for what reason it was for his sons and for him but it was for his sons it was a testimony of faith why did he do it he's encouraging them god will do the same for you how long would they wait i've waited for the salvation of the lord 400 years in that dump egypt was when it compares to the promised land and they could look back at their father and they could see his struggle and they could see that he waited and that he waited on the salvation of the lord and their bringing of his body back would always be assigned to them the very route they would go joseph was so moved by this hebrews says that at the very end he says made mention of the exodus of the Israelites, this is next week, gave directions concerning his bones, my bones go back the same route. In other words, he commanded his children to the same faith that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had, and he assured them as I was in Egypt and I came out, God will bring you out. God will give you the land. God will be faithful to his promises. So William Perkins says this, there's one other duty you have. Set your household in order before you die fathers concerning the souls of your children that you charge them he says to learn to believe in the salvation of the lord that he's told us about in his word to know the lord and to worship him he says you charge your children to love and worship the lord when you do that you greatly honor the Lord in dying as well as living and you see Jacob leaves an abiding testimony of his faith to them that God was faithful that he'll be faithful to us in all of the struggles that you're going through and all of the waiting upon him these guys finished the race by faith and his grace you will finish the race he took his body he placed it in the tomb my kids asked me other day devotions dad is that still sitting over there are their bodies still sitting over there i said yep and they're going to rise up the beauty is you don't sit on their side of the cross you sit on this side of the cross and god did send his son and you know what the beauty is he didn't leave him in the tomb god raised him up and today we celebrate he's risen and that he's conquer death for you where oh death is your sting where oh death is your victory thanks be to god he gives it to us in christ and he's not the god of the dead but of the living abraham isaac and jacob are living right now and when you die having faith in christ you are gathered to all of god's people imagine that you're going to be made perfect and he's going to come again and he's going to pull out your body to finally complete it and it's going to all be made new in the twinkling of an eye and you'll forever go in a place where righteousness dwells and there's no more of this misery you can't want this misery so let goods and kindreds go as luther said this mortal life also are you prepared for death what testimony are you leaving to your children what does your life display about what you believe many will come from the east and the west and i say and will sit down in the kingdom with who abraham isaac and jacob but you don't want to be cast out and so that's why we plead believe and coming with believing hearts as you are in affliction know that the lord has not abandoned you. In whatever state you are, may we give testimony to our children and those around us of the certainty of what we believe, of where we're going, and the wonderful things the Lord has done for us in forgiving us all of our sins. Let's praise Him. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your faithfulness and your truth and your salvation. And we ask, O Lord, that we we would, as we go forward in this life, that in whatever way you call us to go through in death, you'll give us the grace to die well like Jacob. We pray that from the heart this morning. That we would be a good witness to our children and command our children. That they would know you. That they would love you. And we think of Annika this morning. A sign put on her. We pray for her specially that she would love you and know you all of her days. Give Wes and Jody that kind of strength as we saw in all of us together. That we would value what you value and have faith in your promises and believe that you're leading us somewhere much better than this. That you've prepared a home and a city for all who love you. And there, there will be no more sorrow or sin or death. There, righteousness shall dwell forever. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accomplishing that in your very body. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.