Chuck Larsen

The Old Testament begins with the assertion, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The first three words in most English translations are “In the beginning.” These three words represent one word from the Hebrew text, Bereshit! The Books of the Law; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are all named according to the first words in their text. Thus, Genesis in a Hebrew text is named “In the Beginning.” Exodus is named “These are the names.” Exodus begins with a list of the names of the Israelites who left Canaan to join Joseph in Egypt. Leviticus is “And God called.” God called Moses to hear the laws he was to pass on to Israel. Numbers is called “the Lord Spoke” referring to God’s words to Moses to count the Israelites. Deuteronomy in the Hebrew bible is “These are the Words” referring to the beginning of the recitation of the commandments God gave Moses to pass on to Israel.

There is much discussion on the phrase which translates one Hebrew word, “In the Beginning.” But a strong consensus among biblical scholars is that it is referring to a time (if you will) before time. The ticking of the clock had not yet begun. Nothing existed at all. E did not equal MC squared. The concepts we gleaned through studying the way things are did not exist yet. There was no such thing as science of any kind; no math, no physics, no chemistry, no biology and no discipline of any kind. “In the Beginning” refers to a time before anything that we know or can understand existed. I named this section, “God started the ball rolling” but that’s not right. God existed before there was a ball to roll. The phrase “in the beginning” is simply intended to put God at the head of absolutely everything. Without God there is no ball, there is no science, there is no life.

Now let me move on to the first words in the Gospel of John where the eternal story of Jesus is told. It begins, “In the beginning” was the Word. The word was with God and the word was God.” Then John clarifies for us what he means by “Logos,” the Word. “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” There is universal agreement that this is referring to Jesus. John writes, “All things were made by him, and nothing was made without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light of all people. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.”^[1] John makes it clear that the very first phrase in the Bible is about Jesus!

^[1] The Everyday Bible: New Century Version (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2005), Jn 1:3–5.

Joseph had experienced much pain in his life at the hands of other people: Abused by his family, unjustly convicted of rape and imprisoned, and forgotten by fair-weather friends. You’d think he’d become one of the most callous men in the bible; resolving never to let anyone get to him again. That’s the natural reaction to unjust suffering at the hands of others. But not Joseph. No one is said to have been more tender-hearted than he was. We read that Joseph wept often. But he never cried for himself. There’s no mention of tears when his brothers threw him in the pit. There’s no mention of tears when Potiphar’s wife accused him of rape, and he was convicted. There was no mention of tears when he was forgotten by fair-weather friends. Yet, the text tells us that he wept often. He wept when he recognized his brothers. He had to leave the room to contain himself. He wept when he saw his little brother Benjamin. He wept when he overheard his brothers’ regrets at sinning against him. He wept when he revealed himself to his brothers.

The last chapter of Genesis beings with Genesis 50:1, “Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.” Hughes writes, “How beautiful Joseph was. The only tears recorded in his life were not for himself but for the plight of his brothers and now the loss of his father. Surely his brothers wept too, but Joseph set the heart-example.”¹

Embalming was associated with the religious cult of Osiris. According to Brayford mummification was performed “…Because devotees expected an afterlife, the physical preservation of the body was necessary.” But she then explains, “The writer of the Hebrew text, however, dissociated the act from its original religious significance. Instead, embalming was performed on Jacob and Joseph because both would be buried far away and many weeks or years after their deaths.”² The Priests of Osiris did the embalming in Egypt normally. But Joseph had his own physicians do it. Vos observes, “Physicians were equally capable of performing the task and perhaps they would have employed less of the pagan religious ritual than members of the embalmers’ guild would have.”³ Joseph kept his promise to bury his father in the cave at Machpelah where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Leah were buried. Rachel, the mother of Joseph and the “beloved” one of Jacob was not buried in Machpelah. Although Jacob wrestled with God over the affairs in his life, he clung to God’s promises concerning the land. Being joined with his ancestors there assured a foothold on the land promised as an eternal possession. Ryan Cook, a professor at Moody, closed his devotion on this passage this way: “This scene is a dramatic reminder that God is keeping His promises. It also demonstrates that for all his faults, Jacob believed and acted on those promises, ensuring Israel’s future in the land.”

1 R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 565.

2 Susan A. Brayford, Genesis: Commentary, ed. Stanley E. Porter, Richard S. Hess, and John Jarick, Septuagint Commentary Series (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007), 448–449.

3 Howard F. Vos, Genesis, Everyman’s Bible Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1982), 194.

Jacob’s final blessings to his 12 sons are very interesting. Clearly, he marks out Judah as the heir apparent of the leadership of the family and thus the one from whom the ultimate leader of the Nation will come. We call the future figure the Messiah. He is referred to here as “the Lion from the tribe of Judah.” This is where the character in the Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan, comes from. He also refers to this messiah as the one to whom the legitimate rule belongs. But it wasn’t Judah’s blessing that caught my attention this morning, it was Joseph’s blessing. It seems that Jacob again reveals Joseph as his favorite. I’d like to have a blessing like this: Genesis 49:25 says, “May the God of your father help you. May the Almighty bless you with all the blessings of heaven above and all the blessings of the watery depth below and all the blessings of the breast and womb.”

There are three kinds of blessings that Jacob extends to Joseph. The first is blessings of “heaven.” According to the translator’s handbook, “…these are the typical blessings of fertility, asking for abundant crops that come about from dew, rain, and sunshine.”¹ The second blessings are “of the deep.” The handbook continues its comments, “Here it is a poetic way of picturing the waters that are stretched out under the earth, ready to be applied for the good of people according to God’s blessings.” The last blessing involves the “breast and the womb.” The handbook says this refers to “the reproduction of animals and humans.” If we look at all these as a figure of speech however, we might see them as including every possible good thing from everywhere. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:10-11, that God has given Jesus the Name above every other name and at that name, “…every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

We too have been blessed with those above. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” He also tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 9:8 that “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times…” As a matter of fact, James 1:17 tells us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  Jacob is giving Joseph the blessing above all other blessings. He calls upon his God to give this favorite son every spiritual blessing from above, every blessing from the depth of the earths hidden in the seas, and every blessing upon the earth in his children and relationships. May the Lord bless you that way! May he pour out heavenly blessings from above upon you. May he raise up from the depths all the joys hidden from your sight. May He bless you through all your human relationships. May that begin today!

¹ William David Reyburn and Euan McG. Fry, A Handbook on Genesis, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1998), 1097.