So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh’s officials accompanied him—the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt – Genesis 50:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 5, 2015): Genesis 50

I remember the funeral of John F. Kennedy. I was extremely young (three years of age) and admittedly my most pressing issue with funeral was that it pre-empted the cartoons that I wanted to watch. But instead of Bugs Bunny and his friends, I was greeted with the pictures of the funeral of the President of the United States – a man who had died too soon. It was probably my first real exposure to death. I know that I didn’t quite get it. But even to my young eyes the grandeur of the funeral was impressive. A couple of years later my great- grandmother (the only great-grandparent that I knew) would pass away, and the images of the Kennedy funeral would come rushing back in – along with the fears that, once again, this death would mean an interruption to my cartoon habit. The memory of the Kennedy funeral is one of the earliest memories that I have – and it has stayed with me all of my life.

There is no funeral in the Bible quite as grand as that of Jacob. And with good reason. After all, he was the last of the Patriarchs. His grandfather Abraham is thought to have been born before the last of the sons of Noah had died. Over the three lifetimes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the world had changed. It had gotten bigger and busier. But now the last of the Patriarchs had died – and with him died an era that would never return. For Biblical historians, this event marks the end of the age of the Patriarchs.

Joseph moves to ask the Pharaoh, his employer, for permission to go and bury his father in his homeland. And Pharaoh gave his assent. All of Egypt had mourned the death of this man that they had barely known. All of Egypt mourned Jacob because they knew and respected his son. And because of Joseph, they gave honor to the father.

Permission was not just granted for Joseph to take his father’s body home. A parade was formed around the family of Jacob and the important dignitaries of Egypt. The parade took a circuitous root home so that the entire area would know that someone of importance had died. The Jewish historian Josephus says that all of this extravagance was paid for by the Pharaoh. Apparently no expense was to be spared in celebrating the life of Jacob.

The funeral of Jacob also provides a comparison point for the continuation of the story in the book of Exodus. In the closing movement of the book of Genesis we see the extreme honor and privilege that the Pharaoh gives to Joseph and his family, but the when the story continues in the book of Exodus generations later, we are greeted with the words “Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt” (Exodus 1:8). Here Joseph had but to ask to go home and bury his father and his trip would be paid for by the king; in the story that follows Moses would repeatedly ask the Pharaoh to let Israel return home, and the Pharaoh would refuse. The times, they had changed.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 1