1.10.25 ~ Chazak! Chazak!

Good morning!

Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; they embalmed him and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt (Gen. 50:26)

What a bizarre way to end the book of Genesis! And what a bizarre verse to focus on at the end of the week. Happy preparation day and Shabbat shalom!!

Even the fifth and final book, Deuteronomy, which concludes with Moses' passing, culminates with a eulogy so rarely moving that it leaves one with an unforgettable impression of Moses (Deut. 34:10-12).

Yet, the Book of Books, Genesis, the seed of all mankind, chooses to conclude its first installment with a gloomy and despairing punch line: Joseph's death and burial. Huh? 

Wasn't he the incredible human being who in the best and worst of times displayed enormous dignity and richness of spirit, that tremendous visionary and leader who rescued a world from famine? If that is not enough, Genesis informs us that Joseph is embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. There his remains would be stored for hundreds of years until God's people would leave Egypt and bury his bones in the city of Shechem (Josh. 24:32).

While Joseph's father, Jacob, labored hard for assurances that his body would not remain among the morally depraved Egyptian people, but would be brought back to the sacred soil of Hebron (Gen. 50:5), Joseph's worn and set apart body must remain etched in Egyptian earth for centuries. Surely, there's a lesson here for us!?? I mean, come on, wouldn't it have made sense to end the book in verse 25?

"Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." (Gen. 50:25)

My bizarre question about the ending of Genesis increases upon considering the biblical custom that when the reader of the Torah concludes each of the five books of Moses, the entire assembly/qahal thunders out loud: Chazak! Chazak! Venischazak!/Be strong! Be strong! Let us be strengthened!"

How would this statement fit with the mundane conclusion of Genesis? How can one glean strength, never mind triple strength, from this despairing end? Enquiring minds want to know :-)

Beyond the initial blush, there is a deeply comforting message. Unfortunately, we cannot live life without pain. Every life comes with challenges. The very genesis of existence is rooted in a void and a vacuum, where God appears and feels like He's concealed from my egocentric universe and a perceived sense that we are alone, broken and detached...you know what I mean? 

This means that life, whichever way you twist it, is a confrontation with a void, and a painful experience. No soul entering a body is devoid of the most profound of all traumas; the feeling of perceived abandonment. And it is on this journey that I must discover that I am not alone and that I can trust (Ex. 17:6,7). That God is with me and in me at every moment. 

But, how does this tie into Joseph being embalmed and left in Egypt? Great question! God's people are about to become enslaved and subjugated to a tyrannical government that will attempt to destroy them one by one, physically, mentally, relationally, spiritually and financially (Ex. 1 & 2). This new Egyptian genocide program will drown children, subject all men to slave labor and crush a new nation.

What will give the people of Israel the resolve they will desperately need? What will preserve broken and devastated people from falling into the pit of despair (Princes Bride movie)? The knowledge that one day they would be liberated (Gen. 50:25)! Certainly. The knowledge that evil will not reign forever? Absolutely. Indeed, this is what Joseph told the people before his passing... 

"I am about to die, but G-d will indeed remember you and bring you up out of this land to the land that He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob... You will bring my bones up out of here."

But, then, when Genesis seeks to choose its final words, it provides us with a message that perhaps served as the greatest source of strength for an orphaned and broken family. 

"Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; they embalmed him and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt."

Joseph's sacred body is not taken back to the Holy Land to be interred among the spiritual giants of human history: Abraham and Sarah; Isaac and Rebecca; his father Jacob, or his mother Rachel. Joseph's spiritual and physical presence does not "escape" to the heavenly paradise of a land saturated with holiness.

Rather, Joseph remains in the grit and gravel of depraved Egypt, he remains etched deeply in the earthiness of Egypt, together with his beloved people that he saved from certain death in the famine.

It is true for each of us. When I can hold space for your pain, and embrace you in your anguish, telling you that you are not alone, it may provide you with the deep strength to discover your own inner infinite dignity and power (Gal. 6:1-4). 

God's people may be entrenched in Egypt and all that it represents, but Joseph, the one foreshadowing our Messiah Yeshua, is right there with him, in the midst of his condition, giving him strength, blessings, and fortitude.

We may be stuck in the quagmire of "Egyptian shitake", yet "Joseph" is present with us. Thus, even in the midst of a dark and horrific exile, we can hold each other’s hands and thunder aloud: Chazak! Chazak! Venischazak! "Be strong! Be strong! Let us be strengthened!"

Let's follow Joseph and Yeshua's example...be there for one another!

Shalom!

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