COME AS A CHILD LESSON 106 ISRAEL'S BODY IS RETURNED TO THE LAND OF CANAAN

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The day came when Israel breathed his last breath and the nation of Israel presently living in the land of Goshen in Egypt lost their beloved patriarch.  

When Israel died Joseph mourned deeply.  He wept and kissed his father for the last time and directed the physicians working under him to embalm his father, Israel.  

The Egyptians were the first culture of people to perfect the art of embalming.  It was quite a process.  Joseph’s physicians took a full 40 days with this process for Israel, but the normal time could actually last up to 200 days.  Even after this 40 day process, they still mourned up till 70 days.  The embalming was important in that they had to carry the body of Israel across the hot desert for a period of many days in order to carry out Israel’s desire to be buried in the cave of his homeland.

Due to the poor condition of human remains found in Palestinian tombs in modern days we know it was not the general Hebrew custom to embalm the dead, but there are two times when it is spoken of in the scriptures; here at the death of Israel and later with the death of Joseph.  Jesus spoke of how his body was anointed or prepared, but not embalmed.  Both times the scriptures speak of embalming the process was carried out by well respected Egyptian physicians who specialized in such processes.  They were called "healers."  This kept the body from decay and the Egyptians sometimes actually kept the bodies of their loved ones inside their homes.  The Egyptians thought this preserving of the body very important since they believed in the afterlife the spirit would at some point come back and reenter the body again.  

When we look upon the followers of Christ at a later date, we can note that they did not embalm their deceased ones in an effort to preserve their bodies indefinitely.  Faithful Hebrews and true Christians realized that the soul leaves the body when it dies and that the body returns to dust.   In Israel's case, Joseph needed his body to be preserved for a very long journey.

Once the embalming and the customary Egyptian mourning process had been performed, Joseph was free to request the burial and another funeral be carried out in Canaan.  When it was time for his father to be buried, Joseph got up and spoke to the court of Pharaoh saying, “If I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me.  Tell him, ‘My father made me swear an oath and said, “I am about to die, bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.”  Now let me go up and bury my father, then I will return.’”

It is presumed that Joseph is mourning in Goshen and that is why he did not go to Pharaoh himself, but sent others.  Though Joseph was a loved and respected Viceroy of Egypt, he was still not a free man.  He was still under the authority of Pharaoh.  Pharaoh showed favor to Joseph and told him to go to bury his father as he had instructed him to do.  

So Joseph went up to Canaan to bury his father and all the officials of Pharaoh accompanied him on this journey.  The dignitaries of Joseph’s court and the dignitaries of Egypt all went with Joseph.  The members of Joseph’s family and their households and all the people that belonged to them also were traveling with Joseph.  The Egyptian warriors rode ahead of them to assure their safety in the land and that there was no fighting over rights to the cave of burial.   So there was a very large company of people with many chariots and horsemen traveling with Joseph to bury Israel.   This was a very honorable and royal burial.  Jacob was treated the same by the Egyptians as the highest dignitaries of the land of Egypt.

The family of Jacob left their young children and their herds in Egypt because Joseph had agreed with Pharaoh to return.  If not for this Pharaoh might not have been so quick to agree to let him leave.  Leaving the children, a few servants and their livestock behind was almost like a promise of surety that they would not try to escape with the great wealth of Egypt that Pharaoh had entrusted to them for Jacob's burial. 

They grieved as they traveled.  They reached the threshing floor of Atat near the Jordan River and there they lamented loudly and bitterly. 

It was a usual practice to make a hedge of thorns about a threshing floor, that it might be preserved from the enemies and thieves.  Mention is made in the Talmud of the wilderness of Atat, perhaps so called from the thorns and brambles in the area that formed a circle around the threshing floor.  Jerome says it was three miles from Jericho, two from Jordan, and was in his time called Bethagla, the place of a circuit; because there they went about after the manner of mourners at the funeral of Jacob.

I could not help but think of the crown of thorns that Jesus wore as He was crucified.  Both the death of Christ and the death of Israel were symbolized and remembered by a circle of thorns.  From Christ came our eternal life and from Israel came a nation of people who worshiped God and produced a Messiah; just as a rose comes from a bush of thorns, both deaths eventually produced new life.

It was in that place of the thorns that Joseph observed a seven day period of mourning for his father.   The Threshing Floor of Atat had one large area big enough to hold all of the mourners who came to mourn for Israel.  They mourned encircled by walls of thorns.   The Canaanites living in the area saw them grieving and heard their cries and they said “The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning.”  They probably had no idea the mourning was over Jacob, who was not an Egyptian at all.  Because of this, the place has since been called Abel Mizraim, the place of Egypt's mourning.

We know that seven is the number of spiritual completeness.  Seven days after the person's body was put into the grave the mourning was complete.  The seventh day signaled the end of the time of mourning for Joseph.

So Jacob/Israel was carried to the land of Canaan and buried in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre.  It was the field that Abraham had bought for a burial place from Ephron the Hittite.  It was the burial site of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob's wife Leah.  Now Jacob too, would rest with his ancestors in the cave that Sarah had influenced Abraham to purchase because she thought it was the burial place where God had placed Adam and Eve.  

After Joseph had buried his father he returned to Egypt.  All of those who had traveled with him also returned.  Was it hard for them to leave the land of Canaan again?  The scriptures do not tell us, but I suspect they longed to stay.  Perhaps the grieving going back was more than the leaving behind of their beloved patriarch, it was also remembering that they now had become foreigners in a strange land.