The testimony of burial instructions
Years ago, after moving to a new town and a new ministry position, I decided that it would be good to meet the other pastors in the community. One church in the community I recognized was a significant connection to make. This church was of another denomination than my church. Yet, our two churches had historically partnered in community service endeavors because of our proximity to one another and equivalent prominence in the community. Knowing this history, I thought a relationship with this church’s pastor would be beneficial. I called the church and made an appointment. The pastor’s secretary greeted me and escorted me to the pastor’s office when I arrived. I imagined that the pastor would be welcoming, warm, and open to connecting with me. I was unpleasantly surprised.
When I entered his office, his disinterest was apparent, and he seemed annoyed that I had bothered to interrupt his time. I told him who I was and how I hoped we could be good partners for the gospel in our community. To say he was not interested would be a gross understatement. He made it clear that I could do whatever I wanted, but he was not interested in participating. He explained that he was within a year or two of retiring and was biding his time until that day. I was flabbergasted. He was not ashamed nor secretive about his plan. He intended to perform the minimum requirements of his pastoral duties until he could retire and move on to other things.
The denomination that I am a part of does not have a retirement age, and neither do we have a denominationally mandated retirement investment plan. As such, many pastors in my denomination preach well past retirement age. Most of our churches are small and unable provide retirement contributions. Thus, many pastors have very little retirement savings, and few, if any, are able (or desire) to retire early. Most pastors I know see their ministry as a calling and not simply a job to complete. Thus, my experience with this pastor was shocking to me. How could a pastor care so little about his church and the gospel proclamation in the community? This man would be true to his word. He went through the motions and performed the required duties of his position until he reached the point he could retire. He retired and began selling real estate. I certainly do not know his heart, but from my observations, it seemed that he put much more passion and effort into building his business than he did building the church he pastored.
When you achieve wealth, prosperity, or success, there is an accompanying danger of allowing the pleasures and comforts of these accomplishments to distract you from better things. Even completing something good like a career can distract you from your greater task. It was easy for me to see the contrast with the pastor who just wanted to coast and mark time because I was young, energetic, and eager to be about the work. Yet, as I have now added two additional decades to my own ministry, I am now less judgmental of him and more aware of the present danger to myself. My prayer is that time and maturity, and hopefully, the accumulation of wisdom and experience, would not distract me from the calling of the gospel but propel me even more to pour out all I have for Jesus. Reaching a point where past effort affords present disengagement is not something the Bible celebrates or God honors. God calls us to use every moment of our lives for His glory. God is always working according to His will and purpose. God’s servants must give every breath and all our lives to His will and purpose. Presently, there is much that tempts us to give in to the siren’s call that lures us toward purposeless disengagement from the work and will of God. One of the great testimonies in scripture of one who never lost sight of God’s will and work was Joseph. And one of the greatest moments of his testimony was not when he was young and physically strong but rather when he was old and about to die.
Joseph’s story includes grief, heartbreak, and abundant wealth. When Joseph died, he enjoyed the highest position under the Pharaoh of Egypt. His position of authority afforded him all the comforts and pleasures of the world. He had attained his high position because of the provision of God.
Joseph was loved by his father but hated by most of his brothers. Their hatred of him was so great that they conspired to kill him but were convinced to sell him into slavery instead. Joseph was taken to Egypt as a slave, then rose to a trusted position in his master’s home, only to be falsely accused and thrown into prison. While in prison, God allowed him to interpret the dreams of two men, one of which would later regain his position in Pharaoh’s court. Pharaoh would have a troubling dream, and this man would tell him of Joseph and his ability to interpret dreams. Joseph would interpret Pharaoh’s dream, and because of his interpretation, Egypt was able to prepare for a coming drought and famine, have food for themselves, and even provide food for foreigners. Pharaoh placed Joseph in charge of preparing for the famine, which gave him both political power and worldly wealth. Joseph would use his position to save his whole family, even the brothers who sold him into slavery, from starvation.
These events are dramatic in their contrasts. Joseph would know the depths of despair and the heights of power. The brother that was hated and sold as a slave would be the one who would save his family. Joseph understood that he was not the one who was saving his family, but God had provided for them through the events of his life. A student of the Bible will also recognize that beyond just the immediate family of Joseph, God was moving to provide for the descendants of Abraham to become the people and nation of Israel. Joseph may not have understood all that God was doing, but he knew that in every situation, every turn of his story, and every perceived setback and advancement, God was working out His perfect will.
In the last chapter of Genesis, Joseph is an old man of 110 years. He knows that he is about to die. He tells his family that his days are short and gives them some funeral instructions. His instructions give us a window into his heart. He was both wealthy and powerful. He had saved Egypt and many foreigners from starvation and ruin. He certainly could have requested that he be celebrated, honored, and memorialized after his death. He could have given instructions that great monuments be built to memorialize him. He could have spent his wealth to build an elaborate and grandiose tomb. Yet Joseph’s instructions did not focus on himself or the position he had attained in Egypt. Instead, Joseph’s instructions focused on God’s faithfulness and the work that He would still do.
God had promised to give Abraham a land for him and his descendants’ possession. Joseph’s family had left that land for Egypt to enjoy the food resources. God had used Joseph in Egypt to provide for his family. God would use Egypt to provide for the great multiplication of Joseph’s family into a great people and nation. As Joseph approached his death, he knew that the promise of God still stood, and though God had used Egypt to provide for his family, he also knew that one day God would return them to the promised land.
“And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” (Genesis 50:24–26, ESV)
As he prepared for his death, Joseph gives one specific instruction for his family to follow – God will return you to the land He promised to Abraham, and when He does, carry my bones with you from Egypt to home. For all the wealth and power that he enjoyed, his thoughts were still on the work and will of God. His funeral instructions pointed to his faith and expectation that God would be faithful to His promise. When his brothers threw him into a well and later sold him into slavery, he learned that God was in control and working according to His will even though they intended evil. When he seemed to enjoy some success only to be falsely accused and thrown into prison to be forgotten and die, he found in the discomforts of the prison the ever-present faithfulness of God. When he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and was given a position of power and wealth, he did not give in to the temptation to be distracted from better things. As he breathed his last breath here on earth, he was looking forward to the better things of God returning his family to the land He had promised them and the goodness of God fulfilling all the promises He had made to Abraham.
You may know success in this world. You may enjoy the accumulation of wealth in this world. These things are not bad or immoral, but they are not the goal. The goal is always to be about the will of God. There is no retirement age from this. A misunderstanding of Joseph’s life would be to think that dying peacefully in his grand Egyptian home was the great achievement of his life. On the contrary, the testimony of Joseph is that his greatest achievement was to be where God was working, no matter if that was in a prison or a palace. Even in his burial, he wanted his bones prepared for the day when God would fulfill His promise to return His people home.
Let each of us live and die with the same passion and desire. May our last days be as devoted to Jesus as our first days. May we bear a witness and a testimony for the Lord in life and in death. Joseph wanted even the resting place of his bones to be a witness to his faith in God. It seems that the world’s idea of achievement is to reach a place where you are free to indulge in unrestrained self-interest. Though this may be the way of the world, it must not be the way among the people of God.
