patriarch, provider, & prophet

So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years.

Genesis 50:22

Joseph died a patriarch, a provider, and a prophet. After his father Jacob’s death, the spiritual leadership of the Israelite clans fell to Joseph. This is seen most vividly in the role he took of being a blessing-giver and forgiver as this text shows us in the last act of his biography. After his father’s death, Joseph’s brothers worry that he might use his political position to punish them for the evil they did to him in his youth. They come to him yet again in repentance to beg his full pardon. And Joseph replies with all forgiveness, lack of vindication, grace, and insight: “what you meant for evil, God meant for good, to deliver us all.” His spiritual leadership of his family is secured in that wisdom.

Joseph is also still the provider for all of Israel’s children and grandchildren. The family is shown as thriving in Egypt due to his leadership and wisdom. And for at least a few generations the Israelites would grow and prosper there. The blessings God had promised Abram would be partially fulfilled as a nation slowly grew within another nation.

And the final words recorded from Joseph see him acting like a prophet. He tells the family as he dies that one day Israel will be led up out of Egypt again. On that day they must swear to carry his bones to the family burial plot in Canaan to re-inter his remains in the Promised Land. This serves as a fitting transition to the book of Exodus and shows us the bright vision that Joseph was given of the great redemptive work God was doing in Israel and eventually for the whole world. Joseph, the prophet, saw the deliverance to come, and by instructing the people to carry his bones with them in the Exodus, trusted God to be a part of what that greater work was going to be. His faith in what God was doing lasted beyond his own life and strengthened future generations!