Genesis 50:23 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 50:23

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Now the way the Hebrews counted included the first generation. So this is simply his grandchildren, not his great grandchildren. ‘The children also of Machir’ the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.’ You can imagine Joseph, at a great age, having regularly his grandchildren upon his knees, and that again would imply that he wasn't miles away from Goshen now. He had begun to identify with the people of God entirely, and was living their kind of life. ‘And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you’ – his faith and his message – ‘to bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’ So right to the very end of his journey his message to the people is, ‘We do not belong to this world. There will be first of all a figurative land. You know where it is: it is the land of Canaan. And we will enter it, and it will be given to us. But in its turn, it's only a figure of eternity and the new heavens and the new earth.’ That's what he believed.

Application

Hebrews 11:10 speaking of Abraham says, ‘For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.’ He looked for the heavenly city, and the writer of Hebrews goes on to spell it out in detail. ‘¹³ These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth’, and then verse 16, ‘But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.’ There is no doubt that, like Abraham, like Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph believed that the land that they would be given on earth for a season was only a prophecy in its turn of the eternal new heavens and new earth which the people of God would dwell in for ever. That’s the great promise.

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Genesis 50:23 Commentary and Bible Study