Genesis 50:24-26  Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.” So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. 

The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ge 50:24–26.

Joshua 24:32  And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants. 

The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Jos 24:32.

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Joseph was 110 when he died. Joshua was 110 when he died. Joshua completed a task Moses initiated by carrying Joseph’s bones from Egypt to the land God had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Joseph made his family promise to carry him home just as he had carried home his father Jacob. 

The place of Joseph’s burial was the same place Abraham and Sarah were buried. Isaac and Rebekah were buried there. Jacob was buried there. This was the first place in Canaan where God appeared to Abraham. This is where Abraham set up an altar. 

This was holy ground. 

God keeps all his promises. 

Israel was at home in the Promised Land. Joseph was interred with his family. Joshua was buried in the place he at last called home in the hill country of Ephraim. Eleazar likewise went to his final resting place also in the hill country of Ephraim. 

God finishes what he starts. 

The grave is not the end of the story. We have Jesus’ word on it. In Mark 12:26 and 27 he says, “Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

We live in a Good Friday world. Even the Messiah died. 

We are moving toward a Resurrection Sunday eternity. The Messiah arose and we too shall rise with him. In the words of a song by Molly Skaggs, “There ain’t no grave gonna hold me down.” ([https://bit.ly/3qJhrbw]) 

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I will sing a song of life everlasting because God keeps all his promises, he finishes what he starts, and he is not done yet.

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Our Father, cemeteries and burial plots are places of memory and tears. They are holy ground. Thank you that those who know you and experience you now will know you and experience you forever. No casket, no vault, no amount of dirt and stone can close us in or hold us down when you give the order to Rise. Today, we will remember our loved ones who are now in your presence. Today, we shed our tears of grief. On that day of days when your final promise is kept, we will give up our tears and grief in exchange for a long hello and an enduring joy of reunion. We will at last arrive safely home with you and all who know and love you. Amen.