In brief:
Jacob blesses Joseph’s two sons, and once again it’s a good day to be the youngest child. Jacob then gathers his sons and delivers a series of prophecies that to be honest sound a little bit insulting here and there. For example: “Dan shall be a serpent by the road, a viper by the path”? Was that really necessary?
Jacob/Israel passes away. The Egyptians are gracious, and mourn Joseph’s loss, and Joseph brings his father back to be buried in the land of Canaan. Many years later, Joseph passes away, confident that in time his remains will also be brought back to the promised land.
A couple of thoughts:
- A prophecy is not always as fun as a blessing. If you get invited to both a blessing and a prophecy on the same day, go to the blessing. Or you might get called a viper by the path.
- Joseph and his clan are treated like family by the Pharaoh, a situation that (needless to say) takes a turn for the “let my people go” in Exodus. This image and the warning that comes were a part of what I was taught as a young lad growing up in New Jersey. In middle school, we could recite the list of places where things went wrong. Spain, wonderful before the inquisition; Germany, where my grandfather and his father before him were in every way Germans before they were not. The message was the same lesson embedded in Genesis. A message common I expect to all wandering people. Things may be good. But things change.
- And that brings us back to what felt to me like the power of Genesis. It’s the book of a wandering people, a promise that there’s a place for them, someplace where they belong. There’s a God who watches over them, no matter how far they roam. And even though they may not get to that promised land in this life, their children’s children will; whatever today’s challenge, all those stars, all those grains of sand, they’ll eventually find their way back home. And who doesn’t want that?
If you’d like to join in… this is the place for comments and commentary on Va-Yeḥi (Gen 47.27 – 50.26)
Next up: Shemot (Exodus 1.1 – 6.1)
-Cecil
