Gathered to His People

 Read Genesis 49

In the previous chapter, Jacob blessed the two sons of Joseph as if they were his own.  Now he blesses the remaining sons. 

We might describe these blessings as a mixed bag.  There is some history, some prophecy, and some blessings, not all given in equal measure.

Once he had blessed them all, he curled up in his bed and died.

Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah.  The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites”

When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Who is the one true God?

He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Now all 3 men have passed from this world.  Our syntax has changed from the Father of Many Nations to a Community of Peoples. 

The patriarchs have passed and this people-making business is underway.

All of the patriarchs were buried in the Promised Land.  The place where they were buried had to be purchased for the land was not yet the possession of Abraham’s descendants.

It was important that Jacob be buried in the Promised Land.  Egypt was not his home.  Egypt would be a temporary, 400-year home to the people who were now growing and prospering in Goshen, but it was not home.

It was not the Promised Land.

Jacob’s body would go to the Promised Land, but he would be gathered to his people.  Jacob had some idea about a life after this one. 

We don’t get any real details, but Jacob knew there was something more. Solomon would write that God placed eternity in the hearts of men.

We are promised that in our moment of professing and believing in Jesus, we have crossed over from death to life.

All that we know is based on our sensory existence. We have seen and touched and tasted and smelled and felt the world and we know what we know.  We read and we study. We theorize and calculate and speculate. We make estimates and guestimates, but our existence is bound by this physical world.

Except that it is not.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  We believe that there is more and that we will see it and live it and be with God forever.

We believe that we will have not only this life that we can touch and feel but one that currently exists only in our hearts and minds and faith.

Jacob had such faith.  We see him concerned mostly with the trials of his day, but he had faith in God.

He went where God sent him. Whether that was east where he found 4 wives or west to this land of Egypt or the many shorter moves in between. 

Jacob obeyed God and had faith in God. God had blessed Jacob and would continue to bless his children and their children, but Jacob knew there was something more for him.

He would be gathered to his people.    

But how do we know that Jacob lived beyond his days in the flesh?

Jesus was very direct about this when chastising the Sadducees. Remember, that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection.

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.  At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

We have grown up with this whole resurrection thing as part of our faith.  I think that the patriarchs did as well, but it was not central to all that they did.  Pleasing God was central. Obeying God was central.  The life to come was just the cost of doing business with an eternal God.

We should rejoice that we have life after death but we should live this life in these bodies completely for God and to please God. We should live to the full and that fullness should bring glory to God.

Let’s end with a prayer of blessing and obedience.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Amen.