(vv. 2-14) 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. And it came to pass, when the days of mourning were expired, that Joseph spake unto Pharaoh's servants, saying, If I have found grace in your sight, speak unto Pharaoh, saying, My father hath taken an oath of me, saying, Behold, I die; bury me in my grave, which I have digged me in the land of Canaan. So I will go up, and bury my father, and come again. Pharaoh said, "Go up and bury your father, as you swore to him. So Joseph went up to bury his father. And with him went all Pharaoh's servants, and the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt. And all Joseph's household, and his brethren, and his father's household: only their children, and their flocks, and their herds, left they in the land of Goshen. And they went up with him also chariots and horsemen; and there was almost a great host. And when they were come to the place Atad, which is on the other side Jordan, they mourned very sore and bitter: and he bare grief for his father seven days. And when the people of the land, the Cananites, saw the mourning in the place Atad, they said: The EgyPter carry there great suffering. Therefore the place is called the Egypter Sorrow, 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 bought with the field, for an inheritance, from Ephron the Hittite toward Mamre. So Joseph went up again into Egypt with his brethren, and with all that went up with him to bury his father, when they had buried him.
1. this was an honest burial of the holy six patriarchs, abraham, isaac, jacob with their wives, who never had any of them.
They had a foot wide in the land that was promised to them by God, as St. Stephen says [Apost 7:16]. Why then did they want to be buried in the very place that Jacob also so nobly commands that his body be taken up and buried in his fathers' tomb? It was only to confirm the promise, so that the Jews would be all the more glad to exterminate the Gentiles and take possession of the land where their fathers lay.
For we are so skillful that what God promises and pledges cannot be imagined and blasphemed to us enough that we firmly believe it. That is why God rules so strangely. For they were now in Egypt, in a foreign land, and soon after Joseph's death they were so oppressed that it was not possible before the world that they should take the land. There were more than thirty kings in the land of Canaan, great and mighty men, so oppressed that it was not possible to drive them out, especially from such a small and weak people; as it is said, "The cock cannot be driven from its dunghill, and one man can do more in his house than four outside. For this reason the fathers wanted to be buried there, to testify their faith and to strengthen the children. Otherwise they would have said, "Yes, how can we believe it, since they themselves did not believe? But to prevent this, Jacob allowed himself to be led into the land with such splendor, as he certainly believed that he would be led into the land by God.
3 Thus God's work and word is always directed, so that reason cannot believe or comprehend it. For how should reason be able to judge this? This man dies in a foreign land, that he must also buy his burial; how fine a lord is he of the land? It seems so utterly untrue that reason must scoff and laugh. But if it is God's word, it must be done; heaven and earth would rather perish.
4. that is why Moses needs so many useless words, as it seems to us, that he should have their faith.
This shows how they had nothing of their own in the land to possess, and died on the same word of God, even after death they remained so firm that they had to be buried in it; so that there is nothing more than the word, and they occupy the land in the mere word. The body can be led into the land and buried, but the soul holds on to the word and remains in it in eternal life; which the epistle to the Hebrews [Cap. 11, 20. ff.] has delicately emphasized.
(5) Thus we have also seen Jacob, in whose legend we have seen nothing, but only the exercise of faith in the cross and suffering from the beginning, that he was well cooked and weakened by so much sorrow and heartache, that he had to grow weary of life, and was extinguished at the last, like a light. For those who are tempted and broken on earth, death is not bitter for them, but those who have many good days, and go without temptation, die with great difficulty and reluctantly. For it is very hard to wait so long, until it comes to the trains, and then only gain desire to die, if one is not well accustomed to suffer all kinds of things before.
6th Now therefore the Scripture saith, He is gathered unto his people, as he also spake of Abraham above [Cap. 25:8]. [It] is a Hebrew way of speaking, and so much said, not where he went, but he came to the dead, where they are buried, as we say in our way, He came to the churchyard. But there is secretly signified the resurrection of [the] dead, that God would raise them again; wherefore the Scripture also calls death a sleep [Joh. II, II. Marc. 5, 39.]. For those who sleep have the hope that they will rise again. So also the fathers are gathered to their people, as God has his eye upon them, and will raise them up in his time.
007 Now Moses writing how Jacob was anointed, and how he was buried, seemeth as if they were vain things: but therefore it is written, that it might be profitable for their children, and for their seed, to strengthen their faith. In this Joseph kept the way of the land, anointing him forty days, as Christians should always do according to other people's customs and traditions.
not to live according to their own sense. Now the Egyptians had the way of anointing their dead with noble, delicious ointments, or spices and spices, which the country carries, which the Jews also took from them afterwards; as also Christ was anointed with myrrh and aloes [Joh. 19, 39. 40.], that also some used to keep their parents in a crystal, like the emperor Titum at Rome. Otherwise the dead body could not have been granted, especially in the hot country; for they had to lead it a day or a hundred before they came to the burial.
(8) For Joseph to take leave of King Pharaoh to bury his father, and not to depart from his office without his will, is therefore written, that every man should obey the authorities, and do nothing without their will, especially they that sit in the office. For here he lets himself down as a servant, and asks the king's servants, all who were under him, to pray for him. God wants to honor the temporal authorities so highly. Against this, the pope and his troops stood up, taught and did, and withdrew from all worldly authority.
(vv. 15-21) Now Joseph's brothers were afraid because their father had died, and they said: Joseph would be angry with us and repay us for all the evil we did to him. Therefore they said unto him, Thy father commanded before his death, saying, Thus shall ye say unto Joseph, Dearly beloved, forgive thy brethren their iniquity and their sin, that they have done so evil unto thee. Dearly beloved, forgive us now this iniquity, 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, and said, Behold, here are we thy servants. Joseph said to them: Fear not, for I am under GOD. Ye thought evil of me; but God hath turned it for good, to do as it is now in the day, to preserve much people. Fear not therefore, I will provide for you and your children. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
(9) Now this is a fine, sweet text, and a great example to comfort us. There the brothers stand, confess and confess their sin,
and they draw on God for a father, as do the true Christians. Joseph, however, is so full of love that his heart warms, and he cannot refrain from weeping; he has even forgotten the iniquity that the brothers have done to him. Whoever could form the mirror in himself would easily forgive his enemies.
10) Yes, even more he says: "God has turned it for the best, for you and for me, and has benefited many people. 1)" He does not praise their deed, but confesses that they meant evil to destroy him; but he teaches us how God has the hearts and minds of all our enemies in his hand, which, though they be evil, yet he can so turn them that it is just contrary to their opinion. Whoever believes this can easily overcome his enemies, must not be afraid of anyone, because he knows that God governs and masters all things, and that he has such a God who wants to turn all misfortune into happiness for him.
Therefore, if you are a Christian, let the world be angry with you and take everything away from you if it can, but take comfort in the fact that the worse they mean and think, the closer God is to you and means it for the best. Thus, the suffering and persecution of Christians is only for us to brave, and to know that God will turn it for the best. This is what Christ says in John [Cap. 12, 24.]: "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit"; that is, if your thing is condemned and brought to nothing, it will all be better. Therefore the Scripture [Ps. 33, 10] says: "The Lord makes void the counsel of the Gentiles, and hinders the thoughts of the nations," as it was with Christ; for they, by crucifying him, brought it about that he became an everlasting king.
(12) So Joseph will also say: You wanted to kill me and destroy my dreams, but they have been fulfilled just by this; if you had not thought and acted such evil against me, I would not have come to these honors. This should ever be a great comfort to us; but to those who have not
1) Above in the text and in the Bible: to receive much people.
Christians, it is said in vain, they do not believe it. Reason cannot grasp such things, it only wants to take revenge and suffer nothing; but faith says: I will gladly suffer what I should, my God, you will probably turn it for the best.
Thus Joseph dwelt in Egypt with his father's household, and lived an hundred and ten years, and saw the children of Ephraim unto the third generation. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were like them, and begat children in Joseph's bosom.
(13) It is richly rewarded to come out of such misery to such honors; that this Joseph must have been a man of excellent faith, because he is rewarded so superfluously. He reigned in the land eighty years, and was chief after Pharaoh from the thirtieth year even unto the hundred and tenth, and saw the fifth generation of his seed in his life.
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.
14 Again, this is faith in the promise of the land of Canaan; for a sign and assurance that their children's faith would be strengthened, he also commands his body to be taken with them when they go out. [It is kept in an ark almost two hundred years after his death.
15 Thus we have the first and almost the noblest book of the Old Testament, which is in all places thoroughly full of striking examples of faith, and of love, and especially of the holy cross, and so rich in figures of our Lord Christ and his kingdom as no book of Scripture, so that both words and examples show and teach nothing else than the one Christ.