It's God: Genesis 50:22-26
The patriarchs are great because of what God teaches us about Himself through them. That is my greatest hope for all of us. When I die, I want people to remember how God used me to teach them about Him. I don’t want people mourning my absence; I want people celebrating God’s greatness. He is the central figure in the story of the world.
Joseph dies. After telling his brothers he will care for them and their children along with ensuring they have a place in Goshen, he lives until he is 110 years old and then he dies.
There is no grand fanfare. The Bible doesn’t create a list of his incredible accomplishments. The Bible doesn’t revisit Joseph’s greatness or even tell us anything he does for the rest of his life. The Bible tells us Joseph died and moves on.
I continue to find challenge in this. We live in a world where everything is about me. How many friends do I have? How big is my contacts list on my phone? How many people am I connected to on Linked-In? How many likes did my last social media post receive? How many followers do my social media accounts have?
It doesn’t always have to do with technology, either. How do my cars compare with those of my neighbors? Is my home bigger than everyone else’s home? Does my job make more money? Do more people think my job is important than others? Are my kids better, smarter, earning higher grades, getting more scholarships, involved in more activities? Our world loves to set up competition between us and the people around us. Our world loves to convince us to put our attention on ourselves.
The deaths of the patriarchs are truly humbling to read because of their simplicity. Everyone who has studied the Bible knows the importance of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. God used these people and their families to lay the foundation for what relationship with Him looks like. He used them to begin teaching the world what the Messiah will look like and why the Messiah is necessary. They are the absolute beginning of the story. Without them, the story would be irrevocably different.
Yet, they come to the end of their life and die. Their families take their dead body, stick them in a cave, allow the decomposition process to happen, and move on in life. It is truly humbling to recognize these incredible figures of faith played their part and the story continued without them.
What I truly love about this dynamic is how it shifts the focus to God. We can learn from these patriarchs, but what we are learning is how to be in relationship with God. We are learning how to know God’s ways. The patriarchs are not great in themselves. The patriarchs are great because of what God teaches us about Himself through them.
