Joseph’s Promise: Take My Bones…

Hello Friends,

It’s been a rather pleasant week…in terms of the weather. We began with temperatures in the 90s, were blessed with a few rain showers, and ended the week with sunshine, gentle breezes, and temperatures in the low 80s. Let me tell you, as I type this message, my office window is open, and I am longing for the day when I can get back outside to do some work. I hope you have been able to enjoy this beautiful weather. I wonder if God will make us a promise of keeping this kind of weather around for a little bit? What do you think?

Speaking of promise, have you ever made a promise before? Have you ever told someone that you would do something for them or go somewhere with them? I have made lots of promises before; and, unfortunately, I haven’t kept some promises. And I felt terrible when that happened. Have you ever broken or not kept a promise? Sometimes keeping promises are hard. Do you think you could keep a promise for 400 years?

Well that’s what happened during the time of Joseph. After Joseph was given a coat of many colors and his brothers became jealous of him and sold him, and then the Pharaoh of Egypt took him in, Joseph told the people that he wanted his bones to be carried to the Promised Land. And the people agreed. They had to keep that promise to Joseph for 400 years until they made it to the Promised Land. Let me tell you a little more about this promise and what it means for you.

Even though Joseph spent the majority of his life as a ruler in the foreign land of Egypt, he never forgot God’s promise to his ancestors, nor did he doubt it. At 110 years old, Joseph told his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here” (Genesis 50:24-25).

Joseph died, and the Book of Genesis ends. Then we open the Book of Exodus to find that, more than 400 years later, God’s people were enslaved to the Egyptians. Joseph’s bones were still in Egypt, waiting to be buried in the Promised Land, but the Promised Land looked nowhere in sight. Even after God sent Moses to the Hebrew people “they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor” (Exod. 6:9).

We’ve all had broken spirits. We try to faithfully wait on the Lord with hope-filled expectation, but when our promised land is nowhere in sight and the hits just keep on coming, we’re tempted to give up believing. We can’t imagine hoping for restoration when disappointment looms at ever corner. But a broken spirit is never the end of our story, just as it wasn’t the end of the Israelites’ story.

God was faithful to keep His promise and deliver His people out of Egypt. And as they started their journey out of slavery, “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph had made the Israelites make a promise, saying, ‘God will certainly come to your aid; then you must take my bones with you from this place'” (Exod. 13:19). Joseph was certain God would be faithful to keep His promise, and hundreds of years later, Joseph’s bones served as a reminder of that promise as the Hebrews left Egypt on their way to the Promised Land.

Joseph’s bones traveled with the Hebrews through the Red Sea and wandered with them for 40 years in the wilderness. The day finally came when God’s people claimed their promised inheritance. The waiting, the doubting, and the frustration were over. God was true to His word. And here’s the best part: “As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph” (Joshua 24:32). Joseph’s bones were buried in the land God swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God kept His promise!

Joseph’s bones are symbolic of the promises of God for our lives. We carry God’s promises with us when we feel like we’re trapped in an impossible situation with no way out, and when we’re wandering seemingly aimlessly through the dry and barren wilderness. And yet, because of God’s promises, we can know that none of these seasons is the end. God will be faithful because it’s who He is. He can’t be unfaithful. As Paul reminds us, “Even if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).

Cling to God’s promises, and know that in His perfect timing each one of them will be fulfilled in the best way possible. Because God is faithful and He always gets it right, down to the last detail. God never breaks His promises, and the best promise that He keeps with you is that He will always love you.

I leave you with the lyrics to a song I learned several years ago when I sang in a children’s choir at my home church. It’s titled “I Am A Promise” and it was originally performed by a group of vegetables known as Veggie Tales: “I am a promise. I am a possibility. I am promise, with a capital ‘P’. I am a great big bundle of potentiality. And I am learning to hear God’s voice. And I am trying to make the right choices. I’m a promise to be anything He wants me to be. I can go anywhere that He wants me to go. I can be anything that He wants me to be. I can climb the high mountains. I can cross the White Sea. I am a great big promise you see. I am a promise.” Are you willing to be a promise?

Your Friend, Holy Spirit!

Source: Believing at Midnight – https://www.believingatmidnight.com/blog/2016/11/13/josephs-bones-and-gods-faithfulness