Show Don't Tell: Genesis 50:22-26

Instead of saying "Joseph died in Egypt," feel the hope embedded in his final words. Joseph lives to 110, sees great-great-grandchildren. But he knows this isn't the end. "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 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." He makes them swear: "When God comes to your aid, carry my bones up from this place." Joseph is embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. Not buried. Waiting. Four hundred years later, Moses will carry those bones out. Genesis ends not with an ending but with a promise—a coffin that believes in exodus.