Genesis 50:1-13
‘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 forty days were fulfilled for him…. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days…. Then Joseph went up to bury his father…; and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren…. They came to the threshingfloor of Atad…, beyond Jordan…. There they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation. He made a mourning for his father, seven days…. His sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah.’ Genesis 50:1-13.
Calvin commented: “What happened after the death of Jacob, is briefly related…. That Joseph falls upon his father’s face and sheds tears, flows from true and pure affection. That the Egyptians mourn for him seventy days, since it was done for the sake of honour and in compliance with custom, is more from ostentation and vain pomp than from true grief….
“With respect to the genuine grief which is not unnaturally excited but which breaks forth from the depth of our hearts, it is not in itself to be censured — if it be kept within due bounds…. Joseph is not here reproved because he manifests his grief by weeping. But his filial piety is rather commended…. The mitigation of sorrow is chiefly to be sought for, in the hope of a future life….
“Formerly, more labour was expended on funerals…than has been deemed right subsequently since the time that Jesus Christ has give us a clear demonstration of the resurrection of the dead…. Among the Egyptians, there was greater expense and pomp than among the Jews…. The sacred rite of burial descended from the holy fathers to be a kind of mirror of the future resurrection…. They who have declined from the true faith, assume a far more ostentatious appearance than the faithful…. The Heathen scarcely knew why they incurred so much labour and expense…. To embalm corpses with aromatic spices…, was done as a public symbol of future incorruption….
“At this day, the resurrection of Christ is a sufficient support for us, against yielding to this temptation…. They, however, whose minds were not raised to the hope of a better life — did nothing else than trifle…. Unless we wish to subvert the glory of Christ, we must cultivate greater sobriety….
“Joseph…pleads necessity…. The burying of his father was not left to his own choice, because Jacob had laid him under obligation as to the mode of doing it…. He says that the desire to be buried in the land of Canaan was not one which had recently entered into his father’s mind, because he had dug his grave there long before…. Moses…relates…the renewed mourning of Joseph and his brethren…. The Lord caused this funeral to be…honourably celebrated…. A kind of sublime trophy would be raised, which might transmit to posterity the memory of Jacob’s faith…. We are not here to consider the honour of the deceased, so much as the benefit of the living.” The whole of the circumstances of Jacob’s funeral were divinely ordered to perpetuate his memory.
For the various mournings at the burial of Jacob — all presuppose his future resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord!
