Moses took the bones of Joseph.
An interesting incident in Israel’s departure from Egypt
I. The discharge of a sacred trust (Genesis 50:24-25). Pay attention to the requests of the dead.
II. THE fulfilment of an ancient prophecy (Genesis 1:25). God can kindle the fire of prophecy in the soul of a dying saint, that the sorrowful may be encouraged.
III. The giving of a timely encouragement.
IV. The bestowal of an appropriate honour on an illustrious ancestor. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
A memento and a pledge
And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. This rendered the march a kind of funeral procession, and such as no other history relates. Never was body so long in its conveyance to the grave, for forty years were taken up in bearing Joseph to his burial. We read at the death of Joseph that “they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” The precious deposit, likely to be cared for by some of the descendants of his own family, was dear to all. It was a memento of the vanity of human greatness. It was also a moral as well as a mortal memento. Joseph was a very pious character; he had been highly exemplary in every relation and condition of life, and much of God, of providence, and of grace was to be read in his history. What an advantage to be always reminded of such a man in having his remains always in the midst of them! But the body would be above all valuable as a pledge of their future destination. It was a present palpable sign of God’s covenant with their fathers in their behalf. (A. Nevin, D. D.)
Rest in native land
Sir Bartle Frere was often asked at the Cape, “What do you expect when you reach England?” His reply, which was found written on a slip in his Bible after his death, was thus expressed:
“Where in the summer sun the early grasses grow,
Six feet of English ground, a Briton’s grave,
Rest in my native land is all I crave.”
Burial places
It is the almost universal custom in America, and seems to be growing in favour here, for great men to be buried in the place where they have mostly lived, and among their own kith and kin. Washington lies at Mount Vernon; Lincoln at Springfield; Emerson and Hawthorne under the pines of New England; Irving on the banks of the Hudson; Clay in Kentucky. They are laid to rest not in some central city or great structure, but where they have lived, and where their families and neighbours may accompany them in their long sleep. (H. O. Mackey.)