And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
Joseph directed his servant-physicians to embalm his father Israel, and they carried out his order in keeping with what was customary in Egypt at that time. The dead were preserved with spices and drugs and then placed in a coffin or mummy case. That coffin was likely decorated and kept in the family home.
The embalming stands within the account of Jacob's death and burial, which itself belongs to the larger story of God's care in preserving the ancestors of the Seed. It also falls within Joseph's history, which illustrates that God may lead a person by a winding path while still guiding him to the purpose intended for him. The physicians embalmed Jacob, also called Israel, and his preserved body was taken as a possible testimony to the patriarchs' hope in resurrection. Yet their future glory does not depend on their bodies remaining intact in the tomb.
Joseph's act in arranging the embalming cared for and honored his father Jacob, and Jacob's funeral rites and burial journey exemplify the fifth commandment's call to honor parents. That command to embalm Israel belongs together with Joseph's care and sustenance of Jacob, his presence at Jacob's dying scene, and the funeral obsequies and funeral march to a distant foreign land. That journey laid Jacob in the cave of Machpelah beside the dust of his father. In doing so Joseph kept the fifth commandment long before Sinai, proving that the fifth commandment already governed God's chosen servants.
Joseph directed his servant-physicians to embalm his father Israel, and they carried out his order in keeping with what was customary in Egypt at that time. The dead were preserved with spices and drugs and then placed in a coffin or mummy case. That coffin was likely decorated and kept in the family home.
The embalming stands within the account of Jacob's death and burial, which itself belongs to the larger story of God's care in preserving the ancestors of the Seed. It also falls within Joseph's history, which illustrates that God may lead a person by a winding path while still guiding him to the purpose intended for him. The physicians embalmed Jacob, also called Israel, and his preserved body was taken as a possible testimony to the patriarchs' hope in resurrection. Yet their future glory does not depend on their bodies remaining intact in the tomb.
Joseph's act in arranging the embalming cared for and honored his father Jacob, and Jacob's funeral rites and burial journey exemplify the fifth commandment's call to honor parents. That command to embalm Israel belongs together with Joseph's care and sustenance of Jacob, his presence at Jacob's dying scene, and the funeral obsequies and funeral march to a distant foreign land. That journey laid Jacob in the cave of Machpelah beside the dust of his father. In doing so Joseph kept the fifth commandment long before Sinai, proving that the fifth commandment already governed God's chosen servants.