Joseph's Other Coat

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.
-- Hebrews 11:22

I read this verse and marvel. We know so many wonderful things about Joseph.

He and Daniel are the only main characters in the Old Testament who have no negative traits or actions attached to them. No sinful thing recorded. 

In Joseph's case, he really stands out. Genesis is such a disastrous record of human errors and sins against God and man, practically a cesspool of human evil.

And Joseph stands out like a Garden of Eden island in the midst of the swamp. Sometimes I think that is why God saved for us so much about Joseph's life -- we needed the contrast!

But why is his prophecy and the instructions about his bones singled out as noteworthy in Hebrews 11? The writer of Hebrews could have said (allowing for the movement of the Holy Spirit, of course) that Joseph could be applauded for his faith in God's providence, for his right conduct under terrible circumstances, for his patience during tribulation and injustice, and for his faith expressed in Genesis 50 when he told his brothers,

Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. -- Genesis 50:19-20.

Now that's faith -- pure, untarnished faith in the ultimate sovereignty of God and His control of all human activity. The all encompassing providence of God.

So why did the author select Joseph's words about the future of Israel and his own burial to be honored in Faith's Hall of Fame? Why not select other aspects of his God-honoring life?

If most of us had lived through Joseph's rejection and sinful treatment from his brothers and all the unfounded accusations and wrongful imprisonment in Egypt, we would have likely left or at least questioned our faith.

But Joseph didn't. Even in the ungodly, luxurious temples of Egypt he kept his faith in Yahweh.

He held on to his faith in the pit where his brothers left him, through being a slave, through false accusations and imprisonments in Egypt, through injustices and broken promises.

He didn't use his circumstances to blame others. He accepted "as from a Father's hand" all his predicaments, and did not use them as an excuse for unbelief.

So Joseph's place in Hebrews 11 Hall of Fame was because:

(1) Joseph knew what he believed about God. And Joseph believed what he knew about God. Jacob must have done a thorough job in educating him in the ways of God. Joseph must have known accurately and believed faithfully that Yahweh was going to eventually fulfill His unconditional covenant to Abraham, his great-grandfather.

(2) Joseph knew where he really belonged -- in Canaan. Did he understand that what was happening to him related to God's words to Abraham?

Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. -- Genesis 15

Did Joseph know he had a specific part in that revelation?

We don't know for certain. But we know Joseph knew his God, and he believed in God's control of events in the lives of His children.

And Joseph believed in his dreams and he knew God had spoken to him through them.

Joseph had every reason to doubt man and God. But he chose belief. He chose faith in that God who had spoken to him and to his father Jacob about God's covenant with Abraham. So he made his family promise to carry his remains with them when they left Egypt to return to their Promised Land.

I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...and then you must carry my bones up from this place....So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. -- Genesis 50

Did they do it? Of course, they did.

Moses took the bones of Joseph with them when they left Egypt because he knew about Joseph's request several generations before. And he even recorded it again for the record:
So Moses reminds his readers that Joseph had said, 'God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.' -- Exodus 13:19

And for the forty years wandering in the wilderness, the Hebrews carried the bones of Joseph with them, probably in that coffin. Finally, at the end of Joshua we read:

And Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants.
Joshua 24:32.

(It was on this property that Jesus stopped for a drink and encountered -- or she encountered Him--the woman who really needed "living water," not from Jacob's well but from the Source of all--Jesus Himself.)

If I remember correctly (and that's about a 50/50 chance) Joseph's coffin is referred to in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

So Joseph is remembered in Hebrews 11:22 for his faith in God's promises and because he wanted to a part of that future land because he knew that's where he belonged -- with God's people in that Promised Land.

Believing God is faithful is the basis for all of us to be accepted by God.

We all remember Jacob's unfortunate gift of a special coat to his son Joseph. So what about Joseph's other coat? He'll be wearing it when we see him!

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has
clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of
righteousness...-- Isaiah 61:11

When He shall come with trumpet sound
Oh, may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand.

-- Edward Mote