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Resurrection.
Joseph, however, did not only remember the exodus of Israel; he gave commandment
concerning his bones. Why was this? He certainly did not intend Israel to hold them in
reverence as the church of Rome does the bones of martyrs. There is something
distinctly personal in Joseph's desire. If we compare the statements of Scripture
concerning Jacob and Joseph we shall realize that there is some important lesson
involved in their concern about their bones and their burial. We will continue first the
record of Joseph:
"And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried
they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the
father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the
children of Joseph" (Josh. 24: 32).
This parcel of ground was bought by Jacob, as recorded in Gen. 33: 19, and there
he had erected an altar and called it El-elohe-Israel, God--the God of Israel. When Jacob
came to die, after blessing the twelve tribes, he too makes special arrangements for his
burial in the land of Canaan:
"I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in
the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is
before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron
the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah
his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah"
(Gen. 49: 29-31).
It is suggestive that it is in the passages where we read that Joseph and Jacob "died"
(teleutao) that we read of this special burial. Stephen in his speech before the Sanhedrin
spoke to men who were not only his opponents, and so not likely to allow any mistake to
pass unnoticed, but who were also well versed in the history of the fathers. Consequently
we must accept Acts 7: 15, 16 as added light and not attempt to explain it away:
"So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died (teleutao), he, and our fathers, and were
carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of
money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem."
Here we learn that not only were Jacob and Joseph buried in purchased burial places
in the land of promise, but that the parcel of land that Jacob had bought (Josh. 24: 32)
had originally belonged to Abraham, and had been secured by Jacob, after his long
absence, by the payment of the added one hundred pieces of silver. Further, it will be
seen that the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were buried together in the one place,
the cave of Machpelah, while Joseph and his brethren, the heads of the tribes of Israel,
were all buried together in the other place, purchased both by Abraham and by Jacob for
this very purpose. Who can doubt the meaning? There, in that land of pilgrimage, a land
that was promised but not enjoyed, faith saw afar off the promise fulfilled in resurrection.
The burying places secured from the inhabitants were just so many pledges of undying
faith, and the holy dead, lying together in solemn stillness, spoke of the quiet confidence
of faith awaiting the day when in resurrection glory all should come into their own.