All of us have probably questioned God's faithfulness at some point in our lives, thinking, God came through for me that time, but will He come through for me this time?
That's why I love the story of Joseph's bones.
Even though Joseph spent the majority of his life as a ruler in the foreign land of Egypt, he never forgot God's promise to his ancestors, nor did he doubt it. At 110 years old, Joseph told his brothers on his deathbed in Egypt, "I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ... When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here” (50:24-25, emphasis added).
Joseph died, and the Book of Genesis ends. Then we open the Book of Exodus to find that, more than 400 years later, God's people were enslaved to the Egyptians. Joseph's bones were still in Egypt, waiting to be buried in the promised land, but the promised land looked nowhere in sight. Even after God sent Moses to the Hebrew people to tell them of their coming deliverance, "they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor" (Exod. 6:9).
We've all had broken spirits. We try to faithfully wait on the Lord with hope-filled expectation, but when our promised land is nowhere in sight and the hits just keep on coming, we're tempted to give up believing. We can't imagine hoping for restoration when disappointment looms at ever corner.
But a broken spirit is never the end of our story, just as it wasn't the end of the Israelites' story.
God was faithful to keep His promise and deliver His people out of Egypt. And as they started their journey out of slavery, "Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph had made the Israelites swear a solemn oath, saying, 'God will certainly come to your aid; then you must take my bones with you from this place'" (Exod. 13:19). Joseph was certain God would be faithful to keep His promise, and hundreds of years later, Joseph's bones served as a reminder of that promise as the Hebrews left Egypt on their way to the promised land..
Joseph's bones traveled with the Hebrews through the Red Sea and wandered with them for 40 years in the wilderness. Over and over again in their wanderings the people felt dejected: would God really keep His promise to give them their own land? We can all identify with this — the waiting can be difficult at times and feel never ending. But it always ends.
The day finally came when God's people claimed their promised inheritance. The waiting, the doubting, and the frustration were over. God was true to His word.
And here's the best part: "As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph" (Joshua 24:32). Joseph's bones being buried in the land God swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob marks the faithfulness of an eternally-faithful Promise Keeper. God got it right, down to the last detail.
Joseph's bones are symbolic of the promises of God for our lives. We carry them with us when our spirits are broken because of unrelenting difficulties, when we feel like we're trapped in an impossible situation with no way out, and when we're wandering seemingly aimlessly through the dry and barren wilderness. And yet, because of God's promises, we can know that none of these seasons is the end. God will be faithful because it's who He is. He can't be unfaithful. As Paul reminds us, "Even if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Timothy 2:13).
Cling to God's promises over your life today, and know that in His perfect timing each one of them will be fulfilled in the best way possible. Because God is faithful and He always gets it right, down to the last detail.
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