Genesis 50:4

And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

Genesis 50:4 places Joseph's request to Pharaoh's household after the days of mourning for Jacob were past. The Egyptians shared in that mourning with Jacob's family. That mourning is given as 77 days.

After the mourning ended, Joseph approached the house of Pharaoh and asked them to speak to Pharaoh on his behalf. He began with a courteous appeal to the favor he had found in their eyes. He did so in order to obtain leave to bury his father. Such care for bereaved people reflects an ancient custom of sympathy.

The request was part of the funeral rites leading to a long funeral march to a distant foreign land. That march led to the cave of Machpelah where Jacob was laid beside his father. Through his care for his father and the funeral arrangements, Joseph honored his father. The family's respect and burial honor show that honoring parents was practiced.

This honor proves that the command to honor parents in the fifth commandment was already binding and obeyed by God's chosen servants. It was part of the complete moral law governing mankind from creation for twenty-five hundred years before its special enactment at Sinai. It therefore governed the patriarchs.

As part of Joseph's history, the verse shows God guiding him through the course of his life to the place God intended for him. The life of Joseph contains an underlying principle designed to guide dealing with the contingencies of life. Its human experience has its counterpart in experiences people may go through. Its practical lesson is to be as familiar as one's own name, learned for the good of the soul and for counseling others in similar difficulties, with the Bible trusted as the guidebook to the very end.

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