Living by Faith: The Faith of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph

Having led us to briefly contemplate the faith of Abraham and Sarah, the author of Hebrews leads us to consider the next three generations after them in as many verses. And of all the things he could have highlighted in the lives of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, he chose to take us to their moments of death and point out that when they were about to lose their grip on earthly life, they still hoped in God because they were living by faith. Therefore, the blessings and prophecies they spoke were not words of the flesh but the very words of God pouring through them for the glory of his name and the blessing of the nations.

In the interest of time, I’m going to leave you to meditate on Isaac and Jacob on your own, and draw your attention to Joseph who, on his deathbed, prophesied about the Exodus and gave instructions concerning his bones (Hebrews 13:20-22). Now, that might seem like a strange or random thing for the author to focus on here, so let’s look at Genesis 50:22-26 and see exactly what Joseph said to his family and why.

Moses writes, “So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s house. Joseph lived 110 years. And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph’s own. And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land [and how does Joseph know this?] to the land that he swore [or promised] to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’ Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.’ So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt” (emphasis mine).

Beloved, do you see what’s going on here? Joseph knew and understood and believed the specific words of the oath or the promise God had spoken to his forefathers, and he was speaking on the basis of faith in that promise. He was not concocting his last words. He was not simply trying to be hopeful and positive with his family in his final moments. Rather, Joseph was looking back three generations and expressing simple faith in the faithfulness of God. He was clinging to God’s words because he was clinging to God. He was hoping in the specific and ancient speech of God and, more than that, he was preaching faith to the next several generations. He was spending all the strength he had left to persuade his loved ones to put their faith in God and his promises, even as his forefathers had done. This is what it looks like to live by faith.

And having believed to the very end, Joseph now rises up with Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and all of creation, and he stretches out his arms and lifts up his voice and pleads with us, “Hope in God, believe in God, trust in his promises, rest in his words. You will find that God is faithful to the end, and like me you will die in joy and hope unless Christ first returns.” Beloved, Joseph’s faith is not about Joseph, rather, it’s about the faithfulness of God, and I pray that we will have ears to hear and hearts to receive his testimony to us today.