THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #17 | THE FAITH OF JOSEPH ACCORDING TO THE BOOK OF HEBREWS
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3698
THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #17
THE FAITH OF JOSEPH ACCORDING TO THE BOOK OF HEBREWS
The author of the Book of Hebrews sees the faith of Joseph in an entirely different light than us.
Facing death is the acid test of our faith. Will it sustain us at that time?
As the author of Hebrews gives multiple examples of those who lived and died in faith, he briefly mentions Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. He calls attention to incidents from each man’s life just before he died.
Gen. 50:24-25 records that as he was dying, Joseph told his brothers (fellow Jews) that God would bring them back to the land which He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then he made them swear that they would carry his bones with them when they returned to Canaan.
Joseph demonstrated many instances of strong faith in God throughout his lifetime.
1. He had resisted the seductive attempts of Potiphar’s wife.
2. He remained true to God while imprisoned unjustly.
3. His faith enabled him to interpret dreams on more than one occasion.
4. He dealt in a godly manner with his brothers who had wronged him.
5. He administered the food relief program fairly, without greed.
But the author of Hebrews skips all of these examples of faith and picks out the one about Joseph’s bones!
Why?
The main reason is that it shows us a man facing death at a time when God’s promises seemed unlikely ever to be fulfilled.
God had given the promises to Abraham more than 200 years before, but here were his descendants living in Egypt, not in Canaan. They were doing quite well in Egypt at this point, thanks to Joseph.
Their enslavement followed Joseph's death. It would still be over 200 years before Moses led them out of Egypt and 40 years after that before they entered Canaan.
Yet Joseph made mention of the Exodus and ordered that they take his bones when they left Egypt.
By so doing, he was disassociating himself from all of his success in Egypt and associating himself with God’s people and God’s promises.
He didn’t want a grand tomb in Egypt, where future generations of Egyptians could pay homage to the man who had saved their country from ruin.
Instead, he wanted his final resting place to be in the land of God’s promise.
His burial instructions were a strong exhortation to his people not to be satisfied with the blessings of Egypt. They should only be satisfied with God’s promises for the future.
This is the best legacy of faith that he left behind - even for us.
Always stay humble - we may have a sense of what's right or wrong but it is God's perfect justice that prevails. We may not understand it but our finite understanding and inherent weakness often mar our own judgment.
Joseph's bones speak more eloquently of his undying faith in God's promises than we ever supposed.
