Jacob knew he was about to die.
He also knew that he was not in the land that God had promised would belong to him and to his heirs.
Rather, he was in Egypt enduring a devastating famine. And he was going to die there.
When he had arrived in Egypt, he had told the Pharaoh that his years were “few and evil.” And now those years were at their end.
Yes, God had protected Jacob and his entire family throughout the famine so far, and was slowly growing them into an entire nation, but the promise of the land was apparently one that Jacob would never see with his own eyes.
And yet…
Jacob saw God’s promise with something more than just his eyes and more than just his heart.
And so he made his sons swear to him that they would not bury his bones in Egypt, but that after he died they would carry his dead bones to the place that Abraham had reverse-haggled to purchase in order to lay to rest his beloved wife Sarah – a cave at a field called Machpelah.
Jacob would not see God’s promise of the land, but he would make sure that he played his own part in God’s plan – in a way that would link his grandparents and his parents with his own children – and with their children – and with their children.
…At a lonely tomb in a far away promised land.
Looking ahead to that day, several hundred years later, when the nation which was named after Jacob, Israel, would finally march into that land and around Jericho – soon to have the deeds to the rest of the land in their hands – placed there by God Himself (see Joshua, chapters 14 – 19).
Jacob was trusting God by looking far beyond what he could see with his eyes.
And as Jacob’s sons carried his old dead bones from Egypt to that cave, they carried God’s sovereign will along with them as well.