A Few Words Before I GoSample

Joseph clung to God's promise

“And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob…. and you shall carry up my bones from here.’” (Genesis 50:24-25)

Like his father, Joseph had been through a lot in his life. As a 17-year-old, he had been sold as a slave by his brothers and taken to Egypt. There he became Potiphar's house slave, was unjustly imprisoned, but miraculously became Viceroy of Egypt. In that position, he was able to provide food for countless people, including his own relatives, during a famine.

Joseph had built a good life in Egypt. Yet that was not his true home. He remained connected to the land God had promised to his great-grandfather Abraham. The Lord had foretold that Abraham's family would live as strangers in another land and be oppressed there for four hundred years, but that the fourth generation would return to Canaan (see Genesis 15:13-16). Joseph had seen the first piece of that prophecy come true with his own eyes. After all, the entire family was now living in Egypt. He trusted that the rest of God's words would also come true. Therefore, he wanted his bones to be taken back to Canaan.

Are there words of God that you hold on to, even if you don't yet see their fulfillment?