Joseph believed that God was not only the maker of covenant promises but was also the keeper of those promises, and that in time, God would again visit His people and fulfill His promises. The English word visit is taken from a rich Hebrew word that often connotes God’s coming in history either to bring judgment on His enemies or blessings on His people. In the case of Joseph and the sons of Israel, God would visit them with His covenant blessings and would bring them out of the land of Egypt and into the land of Canaan.

By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. (Heb. 11:22)

Everyone hopes in something, but not everyone displays that hope in the same way. Often, that hope is embodied in what is sometimes referred to as a person’s “last request” made just before he passes away. In Hebrews 11:22, the forward-looking faith of Joseph in the promises of God is displayed in a rather peculiar fashion in his final request. At the end of Joseph’s life, he made the rather unusual arrangement with his brothers (the sons of Jacob) that when the exodus finally happened, Joseph’s bones would be carried up from Egypt into the land of Canaan. At first glance, this would appear to be a very strange desire. After all, by the time this request was fulfilled, the body of Joseph would have long since expired, and the bones of Joseph would be well on their way to dust. To carry a coffin on a long journey through the hot wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula would be both burdensome and creepy. But such was the hope and insistence of Joseph at the end of his life. It was his dying behest. So, why did he make such a plea?

It is worthwhile to observe that before Joseph made this request, he rehearsed for the sons of Israel the promises that God had made to His people. God promised Abraham that to him and to his descendants He would give the land of Canaan. Joseph himself was “about to die” (Gen. 50:24), but his brothers would live and, more importantly, the promises of God would live on through them. Joseph believed that God was not only the maker of covenant promises but was also the keeper of those promises, and that in time, God would again visit His people and fulfill His promises. The English word visit is taken from a rich Hebrew word that often connotes God’s coming in history either to bring judgment on His enemies or blessings on His people. In the case of Joseph and the sons of Israel, God would visit them with His covenant blessings and would bring them out of the land of Egypt and into the land of Canaan.

What each of these geographic places symbolizes is significant and helps us understand Joseph’s strange request. Egypt was a land of bondage, cruelty, and death. It represented sin and its curse. For the people of Israel, it was the land of their darkest hour, when the promise of God seemed like a dim echo of the past that was fading away, or so it seemed, with the passing of each generation. For four hundred years, Israel pined away in Egypt, shackled to a life they would desire to happily forget, toiling at the beck and call of harsh taskmasters. It was life under the sun and yet it was best understood as the darkest of days. The life of slavery experienced by Israel in Egypt is the unambiguous backdrop of the “slavery to sin” vocabulary often used in the New Testament.

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