19 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.”
Joseph had been the human instrument God used to save the Israelites and the Egyptians from a seven year famine. We have seen the results of famine in the past several decades in Africa. Millions starving to death. Unimaginable suffering. Political struggles and people being taken advantage of on a monumental scale. But God sent Joseph, gave him wisdom and the people survived. One of Joseph’s last requests was that his bones not remain in Egypt, but that they be transported back to the land of his father, the land God promised to him as an inheritance. You can read this in Genesis 50:25. He said this hundreds of years before it happened. And now the day comes when his bones are transported out of Egypt. The account of Joseph must have been told hundreds of times between his death and the Passover. And now his final wish is being accomplished. I think about today when people ask to be buried in a family plot, even though they live hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles away. They just want to “go home” where their family is buried. Or when soldiers want to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery so that they will be with other honored heroes. Joseph’s wish was a statement of faith. He knew that someday they would be leaving Egypt because the Lord had made that promise to his father. And because Joseph had experienced the faithfulness of the Lord in his own life he knew the Lord would fulfill His word. They would be leaving Egypt someday. In some sense Joseph’s heart was still in the land of Canaan even when his body was in Egypt. My heart has been in other places even when my body hasn’t. My heart is often with my children in Florida, even though I love my wife and work in Tennessee. My heart is often with the orphans in Romania, even though I have not seen them in seven years. My heart is in India with girls being rescued from the sex trade, even though I have never met them. My heart is with the persecuted believers in Iraq and in other places I have never been. I believe my life is making an impact even in these faraway places, and so I give of myself here.
The Arnold Journey 