Will we be a testimony at the end?

One of the subjects that Christians love to sing about is going to heaven. Death is not something most of us shy away from, at least not openly.
But let someone close to you die, or let death threaten us, and things change just a bit.  Sure, and Satan uses this, too..... he can get in our heads and cause us to doubt things that have been rock solid in our minds and in our faith for many years.
This week, let's look at Joseph's death, and think on these things.

Many of us have shepherded small children through saying grace at meals and saying prayers at bed-time. Whether we've had kiddos or not, sometimes we are called upon to stand in and complete the bedtime rituals so beloved and comforting. Remember the prayer some of us learned first?
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
Does it seem strange for a child's prayer to include a line about death? They have so much of their lives ahead of them....but it's not odd. Death comes to all of us sooner or later - and sometimes to children.
I guess all of us are planning to live a long time. But we can never be sure. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, "Man does not know his time." (Ecclesiastes 9:12)   I'm certain that each of us has a list of things we need to do. Do we take for granted that we'll wake in the morning, ready to work on that list? Maybe we will get them done. Maybe God has other plans for us.
How much longer do we expect to live? Our answers to that question probably vary with the ages we have achieved.... if we look at a life expectancy chart, we can see what's probable. If we're older, we probably don't want to say it out loud! (Grin) The "sands of time" can seem to be slipping away very quickly.
Perhaps one of the marks of genuine Christianity is the fact that when we come to the end of our life, we still hold on tightly to what we believe. And when a godly person dies, we often ask if they said any final words? Did they give their family any guidance at the last?

This week, I 'd like to request that we all read two chapters: Genesis 50, and Hebrews 11. It may seem like an odd pairing, but you will see later I'm not bonkers. (Grin) We're going to be looking at the final moments of Joseph's life. It's hard to realize that fifty years have passed now, since he told his brothers, "You meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good."  Look at verse 22:

 Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years... (Genesis 50:22)

The brothers (including Joseph, Egypt's prime minister) have taken Jacob's body back to Canaan for burial, and they all live in Egypt. Joseph is growing old, and speaks to his family:

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” 25 And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”
26 So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. (Genesis 50:24-26)

Did we notice something significant there? Twice in those verses, Joseph says that God will help them. What an example of a man faithful to the end; he is faithful at the very end of his life.  His eyes may not have been as sharp as they had been when he was younger, but Joseph saw past the land of Egypt, into the future. He knew deep down that God would keep His promise and deliver the Israelites and give them a homeland of their own. He believed that so firmly that he instructed the family not to leave his bones in Egypt -- to carry him with them and bury him in the promised homeland.
Hmmmmm. The land of Egypt grew comfortable to the Jewish people. Some of them were wealthy. But Joseph looked into the future and said, "No, that is not the end of the story." Egypt saved them from destruction, but in later years, a new Pharaoh would become uneasy at the huge size of the Jewish nation, and enslave them to "even things up."
But back to our story -- how could Joseph be so sure? Well, he knew his family history, and he remembered that God had made a promise to his great-granddaddy, Abraham:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,    and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth    will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

In addition, Joseph knew that his own life proved that God keeps his promises. He never forgot who he was, and that he was not an Egyptian. Exodus tells us that Moses took Joseph's bones when the Jews left Egypt, and in Joshua, we see that Joseph was buried in Shechem.

OK, why did I point us toward Hebrews 11? Let's look:

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. (Hebrews 11:22)

Well, that's a puzzle.....why in the world did the writer of Hebrews pick that highlight from Joseph's life? Seems like he showed tremendous faith in many other instances ..... let's see, when he was betrayed, he didn't become bitter or give up. When he was tempted by Potiphar's wife, he didn't give in to temptation. Maybe he could have said, by faith, Joseph, when he met his brothers twenty years later, didn't seek revenge.
Those are the things that I remember when I think of Joseph! But the writer of Hebrews wants us to know that God saw his faith shining brightest in his final moments before death. He knew that God would keep His promises. So he left instructions, and when he died, he was embalmed and put in a coffin in Egypt, so that his children and grandchildren and his descendants would know what kind of a man he was....and what he stood for.....and they would have a testimony of great faith in an awesome God.
We can see that when a man or woman of God dies, the promises of God live on. They may bury us, but they don't bury His promises with us. Our God is faithful; He is the God of the future, and of generations to come.

Joseph died full of faith. Will we?