brothers, but beware your seeds have potential for germinating discord, waiting to germinate, bursting forth when your heirs will have forgotten your once in accord, fore-going obedience to the law, long before you beseech God, asking Him for a Messiah, sending One to be more worthy, greater than any Jacob can imagine to bless now.
Jacob: I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittites, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah, but alas, only near where I buried Rachel. The field and cave in it were bought from the Hittites, at a time we could coexist with them.
Judah: With all his blessings given, Jacob takes his last breath, and see how Joseph who knew him least weeps over him most, kissing the remnants of his being, as he is gathered to his people.
Joseph: Send for my servant physicians, instructing them to embalm my father's body, following the practices of the Egyptians, but wondering if God would smile on this practice, exposing it as done for pagan idols, conforming to worship of their gods, preparing the dead for an afterlife like the one they leave, supplying them food, sending them off with their favorite trinkets, entombing them in regal attire, perhaps preparing them to revisit Eden.
Reuben: No such requirements are established for our family's dead, never being authorized by our God, so would He be upset if we follow some pagan practice?
Bystander: Justification for embalming Jacob could argue he must remain preserved, lasting to appear as he was, enduring without decay during the journey to his burial site, preventing dishonor for stinking remains, disgusting with stench, overbearing those bearing him, his pall bearers. Having finished the designated time for weeping, Joseph spoke again, this time to the household of Pharaoh.
Joseph: If now I have found favor in your eyes, I speak, praying for the ears of Pharaoh to hear, reporting my father made me swear, saying, I am about to die, waiting for me is a tomb, hewed out for my body, a resting place in the land of Canaan, there you must bury me, beside those having passed before. Now therefore, I pray you let me go up to bury my father, after which I will surely return, acknowledging my service to you remains unfinished.
Pharaoh: Go up, and bury your father as he made you swear.
Bystander: So Joseph went up to bury his father, accompanied by Pharaoh's servants, elders of his master's household, and all elders of the land of Egypt, as well as Joseph's and his brothers' households and his father's household, leaving behind only their children, flocks, and herds in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, making a very great company. Arriving at the threshing floor of Atad, beyond the Jordan, they mourned greatly, sorrowfully lamenting for seven days, paying father Jacob homage, celebrating his life with full honors. When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw this mourning, weeping and wailing by so many on the threshing floor of Atad, they exclaimed, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians, bringing them to name the place Abel-Miriam, locating it beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded, carrying his remains to the land of Canaan, burying him in the cave of the field at Mach-pelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham had bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite, purchasing it for a burying place. After he buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
Reuben: Maybe we should have stayed in Canaan, fearing our father's death would finally condemn us, justly to exact retribution, finally coming with deserved vengeance, patiently having awaited its day, as we can't expect to trust Joseph, having become a powerful ruler, fulfilling his vision, dreaming we would bow down to him, now capable of doing anything he wishes, despising us with contempt, hating our betrayal of him so many years ago, but not so long to erase his memory, to forget what we did to him. Justified in exacting retributions, he can will anything he chooses.
Levi: Perhaps Joseph hates us, scheming to pay us back for all our evil, giving him an opportune time now for revenge. Let's send him a message saying, Your father gave this command before he died, beseeching your brother Joseph to forgive his brothers, praying he would pardon their transgression planned to harm him, doing the evil they exercised on him, as they contemplated exiling him to death or slavery. Now we, pray you, forgive the transgressions of the servants of the God of your father, honoring your father's final request before he died.
Bystander: On hearing these words, Joseph wept, as his brothers all came forward and fell down before him, fulfilling the prophecy once more.
Brothers: Behold, we are your servants.
Joseph: Fear not, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about circumstances for many people to live, surviving as they are today. So never fear, realizing I am here for a reason, providing for you and your little ones, reassuring and comforting you as the Lord directs me, enabling His creative wisdom to continue. For those loving God, all things work together for good, uniting us here under the umbrella of His blessings.
Bystander: So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house under God's blessing, continuing Joseph's breath for a hundred and ten years, allowing him time to see Ephraim's children of the third generation, cradling the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, born on Joseph's knees, continuing His blessings until the Lord brings Joseph to his final hours, to reveal his ending thoughts.
Joseph: I am about to die, but never forget God's promises, having visited on His chosen people the covenant for us to obey, an oath to bring you up out of this place to the land He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Promise my bones to partake in His covenant, remembering His pledge, recalling it when God revisits you, announcing the time for your return, going home to your promised land, pledging you to carry up my bones from here, bringing them home to rest with my fathers, crowning my existence with this final reward, honoring the blessings the Lord has given me.
Epitaphs For Remembrance
Bystander: With the end in sight, don't we all struggle, forcing our words to be heard, grappling with its rationed time, as we have more to say, frantically speaking, not knowing which will be last, perhaps repeating some, forgotten in being said before, slipping away by our decaying memory.
Joseph: Truly, God is good, bringing great things out of my small beginning, testing me, acknowledging my trust for Him, never thinking of being disobedient to the heavenly vision, directing me to begin a new journey with Him, never refusing to grow where He plants me.
Bystander: God tells us what many ignore, refusing to hear, showing us what is good, what He requires of us, to always do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him, planting us to acquire joy, coming only from Him.
Job: I once painted myself with goodness, decreed by my wisdom, seeing space for nothing more, reflecting my image from a mirror, visioning no room to establish something better, assured the best had been included, proclaiming goodness satisfied, testifying to my virtue of blamelessness being complete, needing nothing more, surely leaving God to lament, But in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines formulated by people, commandments of scribes, forgetting to concentrate on keeping their lives open to Me, ignoring my Word going forth, never knowing it will not return to Me void, assured of accomplishing only what I please, prospering where I send it.
Joseph: Before recognizing who you were, you were unable to change until discovering the need for confession, realizing confession was never considered till you began to know yourself, remembering pride once told you there was nothing for you to reconsider, your knowledge being complete, closing the door for new insight, stagnating your wisdom to be unchanged by the world, never calling you to repentance.
Bystander: With all being conceived and born in sin, all committing unworthy deeds, none ever being accepta
ble, they have no recourse except confession, committing them to repent, admitting they fall short of creation's goodness. Afflictions, sufferings dedicated to oneself, are removed by confession, cleansing sins from one's soul, preparing one for baptism by the Holy Spirit, opening the way for Him to enter, leaving me to wonder if Job's children's celebrations ever included invitations for Him to join their feasts.
Job: Having little time for an invisible One, an imaginary Holy Spirit, impatience destroyed my peace, driving me to anxiously seek answers, wanting reasons to know why afflictions chose me, believing I had never sinned against the Lord, until He brought me from darkness into light, illuminating His truths, revealing I could only be cleansed by confession, and I began to see His righteousness, promising a day when His grace might visit me with compassion, filling my void, trampling my sins asunder, throwing them into bottomless depths.
Bystander: Delight dwells on your hearing the Lord, but also humiliation in taking so long, neglecting to listen to His voice, wasting some of