Exodus 13:19

19. And Moses took the bones of Joseph Joseph’s dying charge and Israel’s solemn vow, made more than a century before, (Genesis 50:24-25,) are now sacredly remembered. His body had not been carried to the Land of Promise, like that of Jacob, nor buried in Egypt, like those of his brethren the fathers of the tribes, but, wrapped in its fragrant bandages, it waited the fulfilment of the patriarch’s prophecy, “God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.” Through all the years of their bondage the mummied form of their famous ancestor had been a perpetual prophecy and admonition. It ever held before their eyes the great promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the sublime destiny that awaited Israel.

Only in Egypt would such a century-long “object-lesson” have been possible. The mummied form of the dead was there often kept for months, and sometimes for years, before final burial, in a closet made in the house for the purpose, with folding doors, and standing upon a sledge, so that it could be drawn to an altar where were offered “prayers for the dead.” It was this idolatrous superstition which Moses so expressly forbade, Leviticus 19:28; Leviticus 21:1. It was, however, deemed a calamity for the dead to remain thus unburied unless there were especial reasons, which the friends were careful to have made known, and thus the fact that so eminent a person as Joseph remained unburied would give rise to constant inquiry and explanation. (Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, chap. 10.) How wonderfully adapted was this act of Joseph to ensure the resurrection of Israel’s life from the grave of Egyptian heathenism!