God Will Surely Visit You

Happy week 10 of 2023!

I hope you enjoyed the Widow Warrior Series. It’s always good to hear from more than one fellow warrior. That will not be the last time you hear from them either. ☺️

Have you ever read the Bible in a year?

Last year, I read through the whole Bible audibly, and this year I have found a version in the YouVersion app that I like. So, I’m back at the beginning of the Old Testament, and this passage stood out to me:

So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household. And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph’s knees. And Joseph said to his brethren, “I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

-Genesis 50:22-26, NKJV

There are so many things to unpack here.

Joseph and his family dwelt together. This was a long time coming, but in the later years of his life, this became a reality. Next, it gives his ripe old age at 110. What a blessing, for he got to witness his lineage up to three generations. It even mentions some of them by name and says, “they were brought up on Joseph knee.” That line makes me feel curious. What does that mean to you? Leave a comment below if you want to give a guess.

Then Joseph gives them a heads up that his death was imminent. However, he did leave them within an oath: GOD WILL VISIT YOU! What a powerful moment in the lives of his family. They might not have known what was ahead, but Joseph prophesied, “GOD WILL SURELY VISIT YOU.”

Have you had a friend or family member give you a word that clear before? I know I have, and it marked my life for the better. Death is hard, but when the ones leaving can leave an oath of promise before they go, it’s a story to behold. There are gifts in store within a loved one’s passing. I have experienced this, especially in the passing of my grandmother. You just have to stay open to receive it. Sometimes it’s clear, and sometimes it’s not. It’s up to you and your heart to decide how long your mourning process will be.

Earlier in this chapter, it references the time of mourning that was the Hebrew’s custom when Moses passed:

Forty days were required for him, for such are the days required for those who are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. Now when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, …”

-Genesis 50:3-4 NKJV

So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great gathering. Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a deep mourning of the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

-Genesis 50:7-11 NKJV

A friend told me once that she knew deep grief after losing her mother. She doesn’t feel it is an emotion that should linger long though. She has now found that when someone passes, she allows herself to feel sadness, but not to let it sink into her heart to make room to grow into deep grief. I like that. I think that is a key of wisdom for any one of us. We need to be mindful of our heart and what we are allowing to grow inside of us when losses happen. I feel that Joseph didn’t want his family to only see the loss, but instead to see the gain that God would surely visit them.

That’s a promise for all of us. For, any verse that reminds me/us that we are not alone in the midst of our grief is a good verse to repeat.

Welp, I hope you have enjoyed this little Genesis highlight. It might have seemed a little heavy, but I’m here to bring eternal language with scriptural reference to grief levee kind of living.

Until next time,

Stay Tender

Connect to the Mender

Be a Sender

#GodWillSurelyVisit #MyMendedHeart #Inthesendingcomesthemending