Genesis 50:22-26

The Death of Joseph

v. 22. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house. And Joseph lived an hundred and ten years, thus enjoying the love and the reverence of the Egyptians for eighty years.

v. 23. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; the children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were brought up upon Joseph's knees. He lived to see grandchildren and great-grandchildren, thus experiencing what it means that God shows mercy to the third and fourth generation of them that love Him and keep His commandments.

v. 24. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die; and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which He sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. It was his dying message, prophetical in tone, breathing his faith in the fulfillment of the divine promise, Genesis 46:4-Deuteronomy :.

v. 25. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. Like his father, he did not want his bones to rest in strange ground, but his very burial should express his faith in the patriarchal blessing and in the Messianic promise. He was sure that the Lord would visit His people with His grace and mercy. That is the final test, if a person retains his faith until the end,

v. 26. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt, in a chest of sycamore wood such as was used to keep a mummy until the time of burial. The children of Israel kept the oath which their fathers had sworn to Joseph. When they left Egypt, they carried the mummy of Joseph along with them, Exodus 13:19, and when they arrived in Canaan, they buried him in the field of Jacob at Shechem, Joshua 24:32. From Joseph we learn to set our hope forward to the great Land of Promise above and patiently to await the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls.