It is a really amazing story, Israel was very pleased to have spent 17 years in Egypt with the son he had thought was lost. At the end, however, he needed to solidify the notion that this was not his home and these were not his people. So Israel called the Prime minister of Egypt in and simply told him, “Son, I do not want to be buried here. I want to be buried back home. In addition, son–your two boys that greeted me when we were brought back together, are now my boys. They each get a share of inheritance as would Reuben or Simeon. So in effect, Joseph received a double portion of Israel’s inheritance.
In looking at our lives, we have to take Israel’s view of our world. We can never see this place as our home. No matter how nice or easy it may seem, we await our opportunity to go home. Paul said in Philippians 3:20-21,
“But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.”
31 “Swear to me,” he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff…Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. 2 When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty[a] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me 4 and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’
5 “Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. 6 Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. 7 As I was returning from Paddan,[b] to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
