Trend Update: Joseph’s Tomb, October 2015
Genesis 50:25-26 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.” So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.
photo from terminalx.org
Joseph died and was buried in Egypt. It would be at least 480 years before Joseph’s body would reach its final resting place in Israel as prophesied by God.
There came a time when leadership in Egypt had forgotten Joseph. Exodus 1:8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
Israel was in Egypt 430 years. Exodus 12:40-41 Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
400 of those years, Israel was under bondage. God told Abram in Genesis 15:3 as prophecy, Israel would suffer as slaves in a foreign land for 400 years. The book of Exodus provides the history. This is verified in the New Testament book of Acts 7:6-7.
Following the Exodus out of Egypt, Israel wondered in the desert for 40 years. Joshua 5:6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD; the LORD swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. See also Numbers 32:13.
Upon entering the Promised Land, it took 7-15 years for God’s chosen people to conquer and settle (Joshua).
In the last chapter of Joshua, God gives Israel a history lesson from their beginning to the current time.
When Israel left Egypt, they took Joseph’s body with them.
Joshua 24:32 Now they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the piece of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons…
Modern day Nablus is the town located on the site of ancient Shechem. This town is located in the heart of the disputed northern West Bank. It is located straight north of Jerusalem approximately 30 miles. It is located halfway between Jerusalem and Nazareth.
The dating of the Book of Joshua is approximately 1400 BC (Nelson Book of Bible Maps and Charts). Joseph has rested at his current site in modern day Nablus for approximately 3,400 years.
During a proclaimed Day of Rage, Palestinians set fire to the historical complex of Joseph’s tomb (October 16, 2015).
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.680740
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/palestinians-set-fire-josephs-tomb-ahead-day-rage-n445661
There are people who desperately want to erase this reality and history.
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