To this
point the narrative has focused on life preserved from danger and death. Now
there is a change and the final three chapters are concerned with death and
dying. This shift of emphasis presents a sharp and disturbing contrast with the
preoccupations of people in modern, secular societies in which the loss of
tradition and memory ‘has made death an acutely private crisis for which
individual persons lack resources’.1
The
conversation between the bed-ridden, almost blind Jacob and his son Joseph is
full of emotion. Jacob recalls the critical turning points in his life, both the
joy of God’s revelation to him (vs 3,4) and the deep grief of the loss of his
beloved Rachel (v 7). Yet through all these ‘changing scenes of life’2
he has gained a radiant faith and a firm hope that shines from this passage.
However, the old man’s concern is not with himself but with the transmission of
the hope derived from God’s promise to the coming generation. We notice again
the contrast with the modern world, in which people have little wisdom to pass
to the young and the future becomes mortgaged to immediate fulfilment and
satisfaction. What a precious resource is ours in Jacob’s wonderful words in
verses 15 and 16!
The
writer gives no explanation of Jacob’s defiance of tradition in the crossing of
his hands, an act which so disturbed Joseph (14,17–20). Perhaps we are meant to
recognise God’s freedom and sovereignty, which defies human expectations and
reshapes human history according to his will and purpose.
David Smith
1 Walter Brueggemann, Genesis,
[Interpretation], John Knox Press, 1982, p358–359
2 N Tate and N Brady, ‘Through all the
changing scenes of life’
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