Genesis 49: Faithful to the End

²⁹ Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰ the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. ³¹ There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. ³² The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.”

³³ When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people. -Genesis 49:29-33

Jacob ended well. Faithful to the end, he finished with two key actions: 1) speaking to his children and 2) giving instructions regarding his death. Both of these find importance in our lives as well.

For those nearing this life’s end, it is important to invest our remaining time into our family, especially the next generation, and to do our part to provide clarity regarding how our burial should take place. Neither of these principles are given as a command in Scripture, yet stand as wisdom for those who seek to end this life by giving a blessing to their family.

In fact, we don’t have to wait until our final days to consider these ideas. Even today we can cherish our loved ones, knowing that every day is a gift. The more we live with such a mindset today, the less we’ll regret on our final day.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.