It's getting to that time of year again!
Spring has definitely sprung with all the beautiful white & purple blooms on the trees...Thick patches of green grass along with the bright tulips & daffodils making their presence known! Slowly but surely, life is starting to stir again...Even our bunny friend from last year (Thumper) has returned! He loves eating the clovers in the backyard.
It won't be long before The 10 Commandments will be aired, along with "The Days of Unleavened Bread" being observed.... (That's a whole another blog within itself!)
All these sights & smells have stirred emotions within me of our great ancestors, the oppressed Israelites. I've been pondering on the story of Joseph's death and the incredible faith he had... One of my favorite scenes in the 10 Commandments is when they carry Joseph's bones out of Egypt (as Moses fulfilled, Exod. 13:19.) Joseph believed his God would deliver him into the Promise Land ~ whether this life or the next...Also a great foreshadow that he believed in the resurrection as well.
The strong oath he made with his brothers, also gave them hope to believe in the divine promise that "some day" this was going to happen! Just a quick snapshot of the faith & promise...Joseph died at the age of 110. His brothers embalmed him and deposited him in a room (as the Egyptian custom.) The coffin with his bones became a standing exhortation to Israel, to turn its eyes away from Egypt to Canaan, the land promised to its fathers, and to wait in the patience of faith for the fulfillment of the promise.
So when was Joseph's bones actually carried out of Egypt??? A whopping 360 years later!!! That is faith my friend...
I can only imagine the joy the Israelites must have felt as they were being delivered out of Egypt...The song they play in movie is so powerful, but probably doesn't hold a candle to worship they were singing in Exod. 15! Love the first three verses...
Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,
“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a man of war;
the Lord is his name.
Gen. 50:24-26 "~ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “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 Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, 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.
Exodus 3:7-10 ~ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Exodus 13:19 (NIV) ~ Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He had said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place."
