Genesis 49:29-33
Jacob’s Death and Burial
29 Then he charged them and said to them: “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. 32 The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth.”
33 And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
The death and burial of Israel once called Jacob came at last. Before he died, however, Jacob had pronounced God’s plans for each of his sons and their descendants (Hebrews 11:21-22) who were the twelve tribes of that nation chosen by God to make His name great and greatly known throughout the earth. They were to be the channel of His salvation to the nations promised to Abram and Isaac and Jacob, with the immediate formation of the nation in the promised land and the long term view of the heavenly kingdom to come by that same promise of faith (Romans 4:13, 16-17) to all (Acts 2:38-39, Ephesians 2:12-13) His children whom God would call. Jacob pronounced the prophetic acts and ends of each tribe according to their natures and sins as well as successes and victories. This would be played out in history as it is written in the scriptures and we see there the scarlet thread of redemption in the line of the Messiah who would one day conquer death and give hope to reunite the souls of men and women with new incorruptible bodies (1 Corinthians 15:52-53, 54, 57) apart from sin (Hebrews 9:28) where death reigns no more! As for Jacob who anticipated that day (Hebrews 11:13, 15-16), he lay down in peace to face death until that Day with anticipation and hope in the work of God through his children of both flesh and faith. He asked to be buried next to Sarah and Abraham with Isaac and Rebekah, in a piece of the promised land here on earth bought by grace and secured by faith. Then Jacob-Israel died and went to be with his LORD and Maker along with his people as he breathed his final breath in his sin-corrupted body as he awaited the incorruptible body to come just as Job also wrote about (Job 19:25-27), another faithful man of God who lived in the time of these patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph) of the faith. We have this certain hope as proven by Christ in word and deed, culminating in His own resurrection from a corrupt body to the incorruptible as evidence of faith seen (Hebrews 11:1) for us to hold fast to until that day through our own deaths and new lives of reunification of our cleaned souls in His lifeblood with new sinless vessels to worship in truth and spirit as we were created in the beginning to do. We therefore anticipate death with peace as we comprehend the end in sight by the faith of Abraham in Christ our Lord and Messiah of all His called and chosen people (Revelation 5:9, 14:6-7) before His (Revelation 21:3, 22:3-5) throne! The death and burial of Jacob and all who since have died in this faith in which we stand gives us joy in the journey until that day and not dread of what we will face on the Day of Judgment. This then is an account of the Death and Burial of Israel that offers hope in the scriptures of an eternal nature while we anticipate the resurrection to life after death in the hope of the heavenly kingdom to come as promised from the beginning to all those of the fullness of Israel (Romans 9:6-7, 8, Galatians 3:8-9 ) out of all nations as promised by faith to Abraham in which we stand.
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