Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20000618.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part III: God's Ongoing Program Of Countering Man's Apostasy At Babel
MM. Round Thirty-Eight - Jacob's Exemplary Testimony To Trust In The Resurrection
(Genesis 49:28-33)
  1. Introduction
    1. There has often been the charge in Liberal Theology that the idea of the bodily resurrection from the dead of the righteous is a New Testament wishful hope quite foreign to the Old Testament Scriptures.
    2. However, faith in the resurrection of the just from the dead is deeply embedded in the lives and testimonies of the Genesis patriarchs as Genesis 49:28-33 reveals (as follows):
  2. Jacob's Exemplary Testimony To Trust In The Resurrection, Genesis 49:28-33.
    1. After blessing his sons, the aged Jacob, revealed he was about to "be gathered unto my people," a phrase made in connection with the death of the other patriarchs, Gen. 49:28-29a with Gen. 25:8; Gen. 35:29.
    2. This phrase could not refer itself to being buried with the bodies of one's relatives, for Abraham was said to "be gathered to his people" in Genesis 25:8 where he was buried as a sojourner in Canaan beside his wife, Sarah apart from his kindred fathers in Ur and Haran, cf. Genesis 25:9-10.
    3. Rather, this "gahered to his people" phrase must have spoken about the transfer of the deceased patriarch's soul to be united with other deceased saints whose souls were still seen as still existing though they had physically died! (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to Gen. 49:29; Leupold, Genesis, vol. II, p. 1201)
    4. In speaking of this departure of his soul to be with other deceased people of God, Jacob testified of his hope in the resurrection, and passed that hope along to his offspring by way of his burial instructions:
      1. Though the people of Israel were peacefully coexisting with the Egyptians in Goshen of Egypt at the time, Jacob explicitly took an oath from his sons to bury him back in Canaan, Genesis 49:29b.
      2. Jacob took pains to describe the burial location as follows, Gen. 49:29b-30, 32:
        1. He announced the location was in a cave in the field of Ephron, the Hittite, a field also called Machpelah, beside Mamre in the land of Canaan, Genesis 49:29b-30a.
        2. Jacob further shared that this burial plot was purchased by Abraham as a family plot from Ephron, the Hittite of the sons of Heth, Genesis 49:30b, 32.
      3. He then described all the patriarchs who were buried there -- Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah and Leah, Jacob's wife whom he had buried there, Genesis 49:31.
      4. The significance of this burial when seen against the backdrop of what was happening to Israel's descendants in Egypt in connection to Abraham's hope speaks of the resurrection:
        1. Abraham once asked God how he would know he would inherit the land of Canaan God had promised to him, for he had lived in the land for years without acquiring it as his own, Gen. 15:8.
        2. In response, God informed Abraham that he would die and his descendants would go into a foreign land for four generations before returning to possess the land, Genesis 15:13-16. The implication was that Abraham would have to rise from the dead BEFORE inheriting the promised land.
        3. Thus, Abraham bought a burial plot in Canaan, the Cave of Machpelah, as a family plot to be used by his sons until they as a people returned, and he would be raised to possess his land, Genesis 23:9!
        4. Thus, when Jacob was dying, he mentioned all the generations of the patriarchs who had been buried in that cave, beginning with Abraham, to perpetuate the hope begun with Abraham, 49:31.
        5. Jacob evidently worked to keep alive the flame of hope in Israel's return to Canaan and the resurrection of the patriarchs to claim their inheritance to Canaan, Ibid., Leupold, p. 1202.
    5. Having given instructions on his burial as his last will and testament, Jacob dramatically died, leaving a great testimony to his sons of his faith in the divine promise of Canaan and the resurrection, Gen. 49:33.
Lesson: Like Abraham and Isaac before him, Jacob held aloft the hope of God's fulfillment of Israel's land promise along with hope of his resurrection to receive its fulfillment, Hebrews 11:13, 20-21.

Application: Contrary to theological denials to the contrary, there IS a resurrection of the just into a Messianic Kingdom as testified by the lives and actions of even the Hebrew patriarchs. We, too, who believe in the Messiah, have that hope, and by faith must live in accord with it, Titus 2:11-15.