Genesis

The clarity of Jacob's final words to his sons resounds through time. But the truth in them is revealed to us now as we look back to a Savior who has come as King. Jacob summons his sons to tell them what will befall them in the last days (v1). The disciples of Christ also wanted to know, as Jesus describes the last days, "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Mt 24:3). The same question is reflected in Mark's Gospel (13:4), and Luke's (21:7). For nearly the last 2,000 years, we have been living in the last days. The last days are not the end of the age, however, and the two should not be confused. In Mark 1:15, John the Baptist preached, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel." Paul instructed Timothy of the last days and the nature of men that have been in an ongoing state of decline in the world since the time of Christ (2 Tim 3:1-5 ). Christ declares many things about the end of the age that are distinct from the last days, including things that have yet to occur "So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous," (Mt 13:49). What Jacob declared to his sons of the last days, foretold the coming last days, when Christ would arrive - through the line of Judah - as King. In verse 10, the word Shiloh שִׁילֹה is often confused for the city of that name. However, there is no relevance to that connection. Not seen in English translations of the Word is the correct rendering of the original Hebrew conjunction Jacob spoke and Moses recorded. SHILOH: "it" ה (H), "to/for" לֹ (LO), "who/which" שִׁ (SHI) - "it, to/for, whose (it belongs)" - Him, to Whom it belongs. The prophecy of Christ revealed in Genesis 49ff - "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until (Him to Whom it belongs) comes." Christ's arrival signified the arrival of the last days. Today, the end of the age is very fast approaching.

Regardless of the world's intention to deny God, the whole earth remembers Him every week as it marks time according to the exact schedule by which He created the Earth and rested in a seven-day week. In the closing chapter of Genesis, the Egyptians, who also deny God, adhere to the same God-acknowledging practices as their burial patterns reflect God's design. There are forty days to fulfill the embalming process and seventy days of weeping (v3). Both acknowledge God regardless of Egypt's intention to do anything else. Throughout Genesis, many times, the place of burial for the patriarchs has been given prominence. Joseph and his brothers were sworn to bury Jacob with his fathers at Machpelah (Gen 47:29). The mourning for Jacob is so great that all the elders of the land of Egypt are included in the funeral journey (v7). The camp, the lament, and the mourning are all referred to as "immense" (כָּבֵד kaved - heavy, weighty, burdensome, honored). The place of their mourning is even renamed "The mourning of Egypt" Abel-mizraim (v11). Joseph is greatly saddened, too, that upon their return, his brothers still do not trust his love for them (v17). The sentiment of his response to their pleas for forgiveness is echoed in Christ's words to His disciples in John 15:15 "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you." Even as Joseph lives to a blessed age of 110 (v26), he is outlived by his brothers (v24). He, too, knows the significance of burial with his fathers and has them swear to bring his bones "up from this land to the land which (God) swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob"(vv24-25). Though not for another 200 years, Joseph's bones are eventually reunited with his fathers' (Ex 13:19, Josh 24:32).