Genesis 50, Jacob's burial, Joseph's death

Because of Joseph's high position in Egypt, his father is given a formal state mourning period due a high dignitary. However, and maybe for the first time, Joseph cannot approach Pharaoh personally with a request, as he is personally still probably in mourning. So he must go through court channels to ask Pharaoh for permission to buty his father in the tomb in Canaan.

He not only got permission, but the contingent which went with him included not only all his brothers but "all Pharaohs officials...the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt...It was a very large company."

Probably before this pilgrimage, and immediately after their father's death, Joseph's brothers become very nervous thinking Joseph will exact revenge for them selling him as a slave so many years ago. Joseph's response is one that has become famous:

Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.

Not just forgiveness, but provision. I wonder if someday this will be close to what Christ says to those of the Jewish heritage who finally come to him as their Messiah...

The last of Genesis concerns Joseph's death. He died at 110, seeing several generations after him born into his family. His last request is to have his bones finally taken to the land God had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- his great grandfather, grandfather, and father. He also reassures his family that they will be rescued out of Egypt by God.

And so ends Genesis, the book of beginnings.

I thought this would be interesting from John Gill on Joseph and his brethren and when they died... It is a notion of the Jews, that Joseph died before any of his brethren,
See Gill on "Ge 50:26" and they gather it from these words; but it does not necessarily follow from hence, they might die some before him and some after him; and as they were all born in about seven years' time, excepting Benjamin, they might all die within a little time of each other: according to the Jewish writers {d}, the dates of their death were these,

"Reuben lived one hundred and twenty four years, and died two years after Joseph; Simeon lived one hundred and twenty years, and died the year after Joseph; Levi lived one hundred and thirty seven years, and died twenty four years after Joseph; Judah lived one hundred and nineteen years, Issachar one hundred and twenty two, Zebulun one hundred and twenty four, and died two years after Joseph; Dan lived one hundred and twenty seven years, Asher one hundred and twenty three years, Benjamin one hundred and eleven years, and died twenty six years before Levi; Gad lived one hundred and twenty five years, and Naphtali one hundred and thirty three years;''

but though this account of the Jews, of their times, and of the times of their death, is not to be depended upon, yet it is certain they all died in Egypt, though they were not buried there; but as Stephen says, Ac 7:16 they were carried over to Shechem and interred there, either quickly after their decease, or, however, were taken along with the bones of Joseph by the children of Israel, when they departed out of Egypt: and it is also evident that they all died before the affliction and oppression of the children of Israel in Egypt began; and this account seems to be given on purpose to point this out unto us, being placed in the order it is. Levi lived the longest of them all, and the affliction did not begin till after his death; and the Jewish chronologers say {e} that from his death to the children of Israel's going out of Egypt were one hundred and sixteen years; and they further observe {f}, that it could not last more than one hundred and sixteen years, and not less than eighty seven, according to the years of Miriam:
Egyptians died as well as Israelites, before the oppression began... Brother Glen

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