About the funeral ceremony and burial of Jacob; about the fear of Joseph's brothers, and how they try to reconcile Joseph; how Joseph behaves against them; and how finally Joseph demands to be buried in Canaan.
Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to anoint his father. And the physicians anointed Israel until forty days were expired: for so long were the days of anointing. And the Egyptians wept over him seventy days.
1 In this last chapter the funeral ceremony of Jacob is described. And such reverence of Joseph, which he shows to his father, comes from the faith and hope of the resurrection; for he believes that his father is alive, otherwise he would neither anoint him nor kiss him. Now it was a very beautiful religion, usage and ceremony that they anointed him forty days and mourned him thirty days. For when the two numbers come together, it becomes seventy days.
2. it has truly been a great splendor. God buried Jacob with greater glory than His Son Christ Jesus. And Moses did not count in vain the days in which Jacob was anointed and mourned, but with special diligence he praised the very honest burial of Jacob.
(3) It is a great thing that this stranger was held in such honor and favor by Pharaoh the king and the princes of Egypt, that they mourned him for so long a time, and rendered the last service or benefit, which the godly are wont to render one another, to Jacob, when he was dead, so willingly and with so great favor.
cher have shown and proven great reverence.
(4) Then it may be seen by this anointing that the Egyptians had many wonderful and excellent spices, such as myrrh, balsam, and cassia, which preserved the body seventy days. For this power is ascribed to myrrh, that it should ward off and drive away, that the body should not rot and stink. When Augustus came to Egypt, they showed him the bodies of Alexander the Great and Ptolemy, which had been kept in tombs for many years, and he was very surprised that they could have been preserved in such a way that the skin and all the limbs were still on them. They say the same about the body of the emperor Titus. Therefore, it was very delicious seasoning, so that they prepared the corpses so that they are not rotten or decayed in so many years, since it is a very hot country, which heat makes the bodies very soft.
In winter, instead of myrrh, we use frost to preserve the meat so that it does not rot, especially in the places situated towards the north, such as Denmark and other places. This is our German myrrh. But that they could have preserved the corpses in Egypt in the hot sun, that they did not become rotten and stinking, is very strange. God wanted to indicate that the dead in Christ are truly anointed with myrrh. Christ is our myrrh, just as the wise men also offered myrrh to him, Matth. 2, 11. For if we believe in him, we are anointed with myrrh, so that we do not rot, but are preserved and kept until the future resurrection.
(vv. 4-6) Now when the days of suffering were ended, Joseph spake unto Pharaoh's servants, saying, If I have found grace in your sight, speak unto Pharaoh, saying, My father hath sworn an oath.
And he said, Behold, I die, bury me in my grave, which I have digged for myself in the land of Canaan. So I will go up and bury my father and come back. And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, as thou swarest unto him.
Joseph asks for permission to bury his father with Pharaoh's will, not only because he wanted to show his reverence for the royal majesty, which God's commandment demands and wants, 1 Petr. 2, 17: "Honor the king"; but also for the sake of the common offices that he had to administer and that were necessary for the reign of the kingdom, which he could not have left with honor without Pharaoh's will. After that, he was also concerned that perhaps the Egyptians would think that he was going around it, that he wanted to flee from it and go away from them, or that they would think that Joseph despised them because he thought it would be better for his father to be buried in the land of Canaan than in the beautiful, glorious kingdom of Egypt. And they might have thought, "We surpass the other nations far above the whole world in nobility, in power, and in money and goods; why then does Joseph seek another grave for his father than in the land of Egypt? For this reason, he cites the oath he took to his father and promises them that he will return, and that he will not move a foot out of the way if he has not been forced to do so by the oath and if he has not received permission from the king; as if to say: I am not an enemy of this country, nor do I desire to escape from it, but I must keep faith with my father. For this reason, the king was moved by this cause to let him go with grace, and he gave him several companions who went with him, as follows in the text.
(vv. 7-14) So Joseph went out to bury his father. And with him went all Pharaoh's servants, and the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt; and also the
All Joseph's household, his brothers and his father's household. They left their children, sheep and oxen in the land of Gosen. And they went up with him chariots and horsemen, and were almost a great host. And when they were come to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is on the other side Jordan, they made a very great and bitter lamentation: and he bare his father's grief seven days. And when the people of the land, the Cananites, saw the lamentation at the threshingfloor of Atad, they said: The Egyptians have a great lament there. Therefore the place of the Egyptians is called Lamentation, which is on the other side Jordan. And his children did as he commanded them, and brought him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the twofold cave of the field, which Abraham had purchased with the field, for the sepulchre of the inheritance of Ephron the Hittite toward Mamre. When they had buried him, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
007 Pharaoh permitted Joseph not only to go into the land of Canaan, but all the king's household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and his brethren with their children, and their servants, went with him, leaving only the little children and the cattle in Egypt: which indeed was a very great pomp and burial. Joseph wanted to bury his father honestly, so that he would fulfill his promise and make it known throughout Egypt and Canaan that Jacob had died. Therefore he tarried in the land of Canaan seven days more than the seventy days in which he had mourned, and in which he had anointed and mourned his father, not for guile, but because he had desired to mourn those same days.
Some understand the word atad as an appellative, that is, a generic word, and interpret it as a thorn bush, or another kind of thorns, so that the same place was fenced; as with us the fields or gardens are also fenced with thorns around, with blackthorns or groves. There has been a place or threshing floor, fenced with thorns, on which one has used to thresh the grain. Others make from this word the
Proper names of a man, as there are many of them in the German language: Dorn, Birnstiel 2c.
(9) But here is a question that troubles and grieves me greatly: How Moses could say that Joseph went over Jordan out of Egypt. Because it is the straight way from Egypt through the desert Ethan, and is such a journey to Hebron, which one can do within forty days: but the Jordan lies against the exit of the sun. But I resolve this question thus: Jacob was not led over Jordan by the same way that the children of Israel went; for they went over Jordan from the morning or from the going out of the sun. The Hebrew word understands both in itself and means, on this side and on the other side of the Jordan. Hebron is a little nearer to Egypt, or as near as Jordan is; but Joseph did not lead his father over Jordan, for he did not come there, because Atad was beside Jordan.
V.15. Now Joseph's brothers were afraid because their father had died, and they said: Joseph will be angry with us and repay us for all the evil we have done to him.
(10) First of all, here you see what a terrible misfortune sin and an evil conscience are: it is almost such a wound that cannot be healed. The sons of Jacob had heard how they were blessed by their father; and although the two, Simeon and Levi, were told of such punishments, which are sad enough, yet their sin and iniquity was forgiven them. For the Father blessed them, that they should grow and be multiplied. The other tribes were all blessed and made rich, especially Judah, and lived with Joseph in Egypt for seventeen years during their father's life. They received many great benefits from him and experienced his grace and mercy, as their father, without interruption. They had also seen and felt the brotherly love in him, that he loved his brothers warmly and showed himself completely friendly toward them. How he had
They had not only addressed them with very kind words, but had also let them go, so that they would return to their father, since he had honored them with the greatest gifts.
(11) For this reason, nothing but merciful compassion can be seen in Joseph, if one wishes to speak thus, both within and without. His heart was very ardent and, as it were, inflamed with fatherly love; his hands were full of great good deeds toward his brothers; and yet their hearts are still troubled, and they are filled with an evil conscience that they have committed such a grave sin, and are so tormented and martyred by the sting of death that they cannot even trust the man, nor do good to him, who until then had already done them much good, and had not shown himself otherwise than in the most kindly way.
12 Is not sin a terribly horrible thing? It is easily committed and accomplished, especially out of temptation, when people sin safely and freely, thinking there is no need; but when the sin is revealed, and the biting and the sting of the evil conscience follows, then no forgiveness or comfort is strong enough to drive away or resist such biting and the same sting.
Therefore, the Pope and his followers are to be cursed as the devil himself, who has filled the world with many countless sins and taught that one should doubt the mercy and grace of Christ. For it is not without great difficulty that a poor heart desires God's mercy and that its sins may be forgiven, from which God by nature flees and is hostile to it; when it feels that He has been angered by many great and grievous sins, it is difficult to be comforted. The forgiveness of sin clings to the heart almost miserably, even though it is confirmed with many promises and signs of God's grace. From this it can be deduced what a sharp poison sin is in the nature of man. But the same cannot be
2078 L Ll. S1S-3IÜ. Interpretation of I Moses 50:15, W. II, sovs-RW. 2079
soon see, if only the law is simply held up to man, unless it comes to its power and sin begins to come alive; then it is found, as a horribly poisoned infernal evil and misfortune it is, also in such a way that the death and blood of the Son of God can hardly cover and wipe out sin.
14 Behold what Peter and the other disciples have done, how hard, how unbelieving, and how foolish their hearts are to believe the resurrection of Christ. So the sin of these brothers of Joseph is also most grievous, that until now it could not be quenched or taken away by such great benefits, and that Joseph spoke so kindly to them, and gave commands to their father, which were full of kindness and good will, and finally, since they had dealt with each other for so many years in the most friendly way. For this reason they are now so frightened, since their father died, and fear, as they know themselves guilty, that Joseph will be angry with them, and that he will repay them for the evil they did to him, and that they will pay evil with evil. Who thinks or speaks otherwise than the poison of sin itself, which is now awakened by the law? They cannot overcome or heal it, since it has already been healed and alleviated for almost seventeen years. But how easily and gently it happened when Simeon and Levi and the other brothers sinned! But how difficult it is to heal and satisfy them again, that is what the Scriptures testify in this place. And that is why many who do not hear the word of grace are driven to despair and jump into the water, or hang themselves on a rope and die. For they cannot or may not bear the power of sin, now revealed and alive in them. When sin still sleeps at the door, as is said of Cain in Genesis 4:7, one does not pay attention to it and is still heaped up with other more heinous sins; one falls into one sin after another. But when it is awakened and brought to life, then the
The blood of the Son of God must be applied to it, so that it may be abolished and taken away. Yes, such a great and precious remedy and help belongs to it, namely, the Godhead that became man and the blood of the Son of God Himself.
Since there is so much misfortune and misery of original sin in which we are conceived and born, the shameful papists are also to be cursed so much more, who still increase and aggravate our harm with the real sins and laws of the pope.
(16) But he that is able to keep himself from sinning, let him cover himself that he may do so; and they that are fallen, let them learn to rise again, and to believe firmly. And in such struggles we learn to understand what faith is; which the sophists do not know, and simply think that faith is only such a delusion as is conceived by human discretion. For they know nothing of the law and of sin; and therefore they also do not understand the gospel and God's grace, thinking that they are small things, which can easily be dealt with by good works and natural powers. But if they had learned and experienced in temptations how difficult it is to be established and awakened in faith in the Savior Christ against sin and death, they would teach much differently. But since they know nothing of this, they lie and snore, and let themselves dream that sin is nothing but the lust of the flesh. But of doubt and unbelief, and that one is an enemy of God and flees from Him, of this they know nothing. Therefore they are not worthy to be called theologians, for they know nothing at all about the most important main points of Christian doctrine.
(17) Therefore we are to learn that sin is a terrible calamity, not when it is committed, for then it pleases us exceedingly, and we have great pleasure in it: but when it is awakened by the law. Then we are to learn that it is hell itself, and a much more formidable thing than heaven and earth can be, even so that grace cannot be grasped or taken hold of without great effort and labor, that a heart weighed down by the law and by sin
can conclude in himself that he has sinned: Although I have sinned greatly, yet God sent His Son into the world, not to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved, John 3:17. If this consolation is not there, there is no other help and counsel against sin and its sting, though you have tried on a thousand caps and have gone to the ends of the earth.
(18) As in former times, when I was still a monk, I had the hope that I would be able to satisfy my conscience with fasting, praying, and many vigils, so that I miserably tormented and tortured my body. But the more sour I let it become, the less peace and tranquility I felt, for the true light was gone from my eyes: I was without faith, and called upon the departed saints and the Virgin Mary, offering masses to them, until now, again, by the great grace of God, we have come out of such darkness, and recognize Christ, whom the hideous monster, the pope and his sophists, have buried. I know now, praise God! that he did not die only according to history fifteen hundred years ago, but that his death lasts from the beginning to the end of the world, and that he comes to the aid of all the saints throughout the whole time of the world, as Adam, Eve and the others 2c. Christ is still as new to me now as if he had shed his blood this hour. I did not know anything about this in the papacy, because then I thought that Christ's death belonged only to original sin, or else the past sins committed in my childhood days; but it does not concern me now.
19 But now let us learn, and hold fast, that the bones of sinners can have neither rest nor peace, but only through the one faith which looks upon the serpent lifted up by God, John 3:14, 15: "As Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It is faith that makes consciences quiet and at peace until the end of the world. Not that the sins of the whole and
should not be remembered at all; for God wants us to remember and thank Him for the immeasurable good deeds He has done in leading us out of the prison of the devil and redeeming us; but the same so that the conscience is not tormented, but knows that it has forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Christ.
020 Now follow the speech of these brethren, which they direct to make an atonement for Joseph: and some say that Ephraim was their messenger and orator.
V.16-18. Therefore they said to him, "Your father commanded before he died, saying, "So you shall say to Joseph, 'My beloved, forgive the iniquity of your brothers and their sin, because they have done so evil to you. Dearly beloved, forgive now the iniquity of us, the servants of the God of thy father. But Joseph wept when they spake these things unto him. And his brethren went and fell down before him, saying, Behold, we are thy servants.
21. They need a special rhetoric in this speech, not only that they repeat their father's command, so that they want to force him as by a law that he should forgive their sin; but that they may also adorn themselves with it and praise themselves, since they call themselves servants of his father's God; as if they wanted to say: We are also servants of God, serving the same God whom you and your father also served: therefore forgive us our sin for the sake of the common God, whom we all fear, honor, and have before our eyes. They do not doubt that God has forgiven all their sins, but they are uncertain how their brother is disposed toward them, what kind of heart he has for them, who for seventeen years had testified with many good deeds that he was already reconciled to them and had forgiven them everything with the greatest willingness. But they still feel the opposite, and they think that he has not forgiven them yet, and they cannot be satisfied with so many signs of good will and brotherly love. Now, as I have said, this is the nature of sin, which the conscience also
They are horribly tortured before men, but before God they are accused and frightened even more severely.
V. 19-23. Joseph said to them: Fear not, for I am under GOD. You intended to do evil to me, but God intended to do good, to do as it is now in the day, to preserve much people. Fear not therefore; I will provide for you and for your children. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them. So Joseph dwelt in Egypt with his father's house, and lived an hundred and ten years. And he saw Ephraim's children unto the third generation. And the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh were like unto them, and begat children in Joseph's bosom.
22 Joseph answered his brothers very kindly and peacefully: "You," he said, "attract God, for whom you claim to be servants, which I gladly hear and believe. And ye shall think the same of me also: for ye have heard the same of our Father also. Therefore, I acknowledge and accept this message or advertisement from you very kindly and humbly, and do not exalt myself above God, and do not want you to do anything evil to me, or to cast suspicion on me, as if I wanted to do something against God. If you consider me a servant of God, do not think that I would do anything against Him. If God has forgiven your sin, if you have a good conscience, and if you are sure of the promise and forgiveness that God has given you, why should you doubt me? For I am not above God, but under God. You also remain with me under God, and let us hope that he will be gracious to us and that we will be reconciled to him.
(23) These words are full of heartfelt affection and love, which Joseph bore to his brothers; and because he is overcome by such kindness and mercy, he could not refrain from weeping. And now, because he hears that his brothers still doubt whether he has forgiven them, after they have received forgiveness from God and also from Jacob their father, he has to cry.
he says to them, "If God has forgiven your sin, why should I not also forgive you all the evil you have done to me? And he adds a very serious saying, saying, "It is true that you intended to do evil to me," but God is wonderful in his counsel, who has turned your evil thoughts to the benefit and good of us all.
(24) For this reason Joseph does not want them to deny sin and their plans to kill him, or to forget them, but see, he says, what a wonderful work of God this is, who has turned all this to the highest good, so that I might serve and help many peoples who would have died of hunger, and would also never have known God, nor heard his word, if I had not been sold by you into Egypt. So God has made something that is very good out of something that was so very evil. Therefore I will gladly forgive and pardon you, because I see that God has done so much more good to me and countless other people through your very evil counsel. And this is what St. Paul says Rom. 8, 28: "We know that all things are for the best to those who love GOD, who are called according to purpose" 2c. And St. Augustine also says in one place: God is so kind that He does not let anything evil happen unless He could make a great good out of it.
25 But from this does not follow what the godless people want to conclude and St. Paul has refuted, Rom. 3, 7. 8.: "For if the truth of God becomes more glorious to His praise through my lie, why should I still be judged as a sinner? And not rather do as we are blasphemed, and as some speak, that we should say: Let us do evil, that good may come of it?" For Paul himself adds, "Which condemnation is quite right." "The law came in beside, that sin might be made greater," that is, by the law it is shown how great sin is, and is not only not healed nor taken away by it, but becomes greater and more powerful: but this greatness makes grace also more powerful. Therefore the greatness of the
sin should not drive anyone to despair, but so much more should one boast and magnify the greatness of the grace that swallows up sins, however great they may be.
(26) This is a clumsy and ungodly argument if one wants to conclude: If God's grace and mercy are praised through our sin, then we only want to sin freely. For God does not want to have or admit this; neither does He prescribe a rule for you according to which you may sin freely. He does not say that He wants to do good to someone for the sake of sin. It is another to do good for the sake of sin, and another to come to the aid of someone for the sake of sin, so that he may be rid of it.
(27) For God is totally hostile to sin and hates it very much, and yet puts the promise before us: He that is fallen shall not despair. He does not command us to sin, but forbids it, and wants us not to sin. But when sin is committed, and the law accuses and terrifies the conscience, "that sin may become exceeding sinful by the commandment," Rom. 7:13, as the same is seen here in Joseph's brothers: then God will not have death reign; as he testifies by the prophet, Ezek. 18:23, where he says, "Do you think that I delight in the death of the wicked, says the Lord GOD, and not rather that he turn from his ways and live?" For as he is hostile to sin, so he will not have him that is fallen to abide in sin, when it is quickened, and by the law woundeth and tormenteth the conscience; but then he giveth promise and help, that such a heart as is wounded may be preserved, that it despair not. A Pharisee or a saint of works shall not be saved because he is so presumptuous and relies on his piety; neither shall David or the thief on the cross despair because of sin, as if he had to be lost because of it.
(28) Rather, one should remain on the right middle road and beware of sins. For although God has promised mercy and forgiveness, as Augustine says, He has not yet given the
You have not been promised that you will come back just as surely after the fall as Saul and Judas did not come back. It is not in our power to take hold of grace, and you do not know whether you can accept the forgiveness that is offered to you. Therefore you should fear God, who is both hostile to presumption and also to despair. As I have no pleasure, he says, in the sinner; so also I have no pleasure in the death of the sinner: But if by the wickedness of the devil thou hast been driven to sin, and the law condemn thee therefore, and the devil shoot thee with his fiery darts, and deal with it, that he may plunge thee into hell; yet will I not that thou shouldest die, or despair; but thou shalt straightway flee unto Christ the Saviour, who hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner, Ezek. 18:32, just as he has no pleasure in the sinner.
In this way God makes something good out of evil: not that he wanted evil to happen, but that his goodness is so great, even in our wickedness, that he cannot refrain from forgiving sin when the sinner sighs and asks for mercy. Not that he wanted the evil to happen, but his goodness is so great, even in our wickedness, that he cannot leave it alone; he must forgive the sin when the sinner sighs and asks for mercy. If this happens, it shall be forgiven.
(30) This great comfort should be diligently impressed upon the hearts of the godly to awaken and strengthen faith. But we must be careful not to abuse it, as Sirach admonishes in Chapter 5. V. 5, 7: "Do not be so sure, although your sin is not yet punished, that you would sin for it. Do not think either: God is very merciful, he will not punish me, I sin as much as I want. He can soon become as angry as He is merciful, and His wrath against the wicked has no end." We use to say in German, Thou shalt not sin on mercy. And just before, v. 4, Sirach says, "Think not, I have sinned more, and no evil hath befallen me: for the LORD is patient, but he will not leave thee unpunished."
31 Therefore, the greater the grace and mercy of God is, the less it should be abused; but he who is willing and able to do so should not be allowed to abuse it.
If anyone has fallen, let him have recourse to the grace of God. Then he will see how difficult it is to be lifted up and comforted. But when you have taken comfort, your sin is already healed. But if you rely on God's goodness and mercy and knowingly and deliberately transgress His commandments, there is great danger that sin will oppress you before you receive forgiveness in His Son, just as Judas, Saul, Ahithophel and Absalom could not have desired it, who were previously so hardened that they sinned against God's grace and mercy.
32 Therefore, what Sirach says: "Do not be so sure, even though your sin has not yet been punished," 2c. belongs to the future sin, so that no one dares to prove the error of the sophists, who teach that one should not believe in the forgiveness of sins, and that it is uncertain; but this is the right understanding of the words of Sirach: "You shall not sin henceforth. One should not so rely on God's grace and mercy that we would abuse it; for such are the people who say, "Let us do evil, that good may come of it," Rom. 3:8.
33. Because God has forbidden sin, He wants you to flee from it and beware of it. But when it is committed, and bites you and drives you to despair, as Adam fled from God in Paradise and hid himself from Him, after he realized that he was naked and could not stand before the voice of God, then the sin was in its rightful effect and in terrible judgment of accusation and condemnation, and Adam was in truth quite dead, according to the judgment that God had spoken before, Genesis 2:17: "Which day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die. 2, 17: "The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die": then thou shalt hasten to the word of grace, as Adam also came to life again when he heard the promise of the seed of the woman, Gen. 3, 15: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. The same shall bruise thy head" 2c. That is so much said: Adam and Eve shall not die, but live, and shall have seed,
who will receive them. Then they both came to life again and became blessed.
34 Therefore it must be diligently remembered and well kept that God has no pleasure in sin, nor does He do anything for sin's sake, for He is its enemy and punishes it, as it is written: I will render to every man according to his works. But to those in whom sin is powerful through the law, he offers grace and blessedness. Before, saith he, I forbade that thou shouldest not be presumptuous: but thou didst not obey me. Now I forbid that thou shouldest not despair. Thou must beware of both sin, and shalt not say, Sin is forgiven and paid for, I will live without fear. In such assurance thou shalt not continue; for it may well happen that thou shalt be assailed with despair before thou seize upon mercy. Thou knowest not the hour of death, neither knowest whether the devil will not attack thee before thou beginest to repent, or whether thou mayest not be hurried by him, and have not space or time to be converted.
(35) For sin or death is not such a thing, that it may be put off and cast away at our pleasure, as a garment is taken off and cast off: but it pierces through the marrow of the flesh and spirit: as we see, that they which are in despair, in the grievous temptations which they have, are consumed with a grievous anguish of heart, and with consumption. And David felt and sensed this power and tyranny of sins horribly, when he heard the severe punishment from the prophet Nathan, that he said to him, 2 Sam. 12, 7: "You are the man" who has done the sin 2c. Then he cries out with a loud voice, v. 13: "I have sinned against the Lord," and there is nothing else before his eyes and heart but death and eternal destruction. And he would have died at the same moment, if the prophet had not soon said to him: "You will not die, but the Lord has taken away your sin", 2 Sam. 12, 13. Such a powerful thing is it, I say, about despair and sin, that it consumes both body and soul.
Therefore, see that you do not easily sin in the comfort of God's grace, but rely on it alone and hold fast to it when despair comes. And there the pastors and church servants should help diligently, and there one should magnify and praise the grace and mercy of God, which is much more powerful than sin can ever be; as Nathan raised David from death with this comfort, saying to him, "The Lord has taken away your sin." How doest thou? Wilt thou therefore die in thy sins? Yet he could not overcome it for a long time, for he struggled with the sting and bite of sin for a long time afterward, even though it was forgiven and pardoned. For behold, how miserably and wretchedly he complains about it in the Psalms, you will see what harm sin does. It is an unbearable burden and a quite devilish poison.
37 Therefore, do not be so sure of doing evil that good will come of it. For although God uses this sin of Joseph's brothers to help many people, and many more examples of God's grace and mercy are found from time to time in Scripture, there is still a danger that those who are without fear may be overtaken by death and go to hell before they can have recourse to God's mercy.
38 For this present history also testifies to the same thing, and shows how difficult it is for one to repent after having committed sin, and to believe in this help, that God will be merciful in vain for the sake of His Son Christ Jesus to those who confess their sin. And especially those cannot get out of despair without great effort and work, who are brought up in the law and prison of the pope and are bound in the bonds of human statutes. We always want to bring some merit here, and desire that God will look upon our repentance and satisfaction; which error even now the Sophists of Louvain want to confirm impudently and quite unchristianly.
39. but we have rejected the same
and condemned. For repentance comprehends in itself the terror of conscience and faith, that is: it teaches that Christ helps the poor sinner in vain and by grace, with whom it is now that he would have to despair, and who nevertheless still straightens himself out by faith and cries out: God, have mercy on me for the sake of Christ JEsu, in whom I believe, who suffered death for me! And if you persevere in faith, you will surely be saved.
(40) But at the same time you will feel a terrible struggle of the law, of nature, of habit or long use, and finally of the whole world, which is opposed to this faith and trust of salvation. Therefore, we cannot make it with our own strength; it is not a self-acquired faith, but as Paul says: It is God's gift and does not come from ourselves.
(41) For this reason Joseph shows himself so kind to his brothers and speaks to their hearts, comforting them with such kind words as he always can and may, only that he may take the doubt out of their hearts that they can trust in him, that he will be favorable to them, and that he will give them courage, so that they will become confident and certainly believe that all their sin and wickedness is forgotten with him.
042 And Moses added, that Joseph saw of his sons children unto the third generation, and lived an hundred and ten years: in those days this people increased greatly, and waxed great.
V. 24-26. And Joseph said to his brothers: I die, and GOD will visit you, and bring you out of this land into the land which He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore he took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, "When God visits you, carry my bones away. So Joseph died when he was an hundred and ten years old. And they anointed him, and laid him in an ark in Egypt.
(43) Joseph proves his faith here, as he desires that he may be placed among those who have faith in him.
who were to be raised with Christ. And I believe that he came to life again with the other saints that are mentioned in Matth. 27, 52, 53. He definitely wants to rest in the land of Canaan, although the place and burial are of little importance, for he could have been buried in Egypt. And would it not have been more difficult for Christ to raise the fathers from Egypt or elsewhere, but to testify to his faith in Christ, he commands that his bones be taken to the land of Canaan. Likewise, because he knew that the people of Israel were in the land of Canaan.
The land promised to the fathers was to be fed.
44 For this reason, he requested that his burial be kept before the eyes of all his descendants, so that the children and their children's children would remember their father and their ancestors, and, according to their example, would persevere in the same faith and promise in which he had fallen asleep with his fathers.
This is now the dear Genesis. Our Lord God grant that others may do better after me! I can no longer: I am weak. Ask God for me, that he may give me a good hour of salvation.