Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt and, having reached the age of one hundred and forty-seven, he felt the approach of death. A few days before his death, he summoned his beloved son, Joseph, and said to him: "Do mercy and truth on me: do not bury me in Egypt. May I rest with my fathers! bring me out of Egypt and bury me in their tomb." Moved by faith – not by some petty, earthly desire – the inspired elder bequeathed the transfer of his body to Palestine and its burial in a cave in the Hebron region. This is how the holy Apostle Paul explains his testament, mentioning the words of this testament as inspired from Above and containing a deep mystery. The Holy Son promises to sacredly fulfill the will of the Holy Father [47]. Jacob demanded that the promise be sealed with an oath, and Joseph took the oath; then Jacob, who was sitting on his bed, bowed down on the top of Joseph's staff. The staff was in the hand of a nobleman, either according to the custom of the time, or as a sign of high rank.

After a few days, Joseph was informed that his father had fallen into complete exhaustion [48]. He took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and went to his dying father. The decrepit old man lay on his deathbed in paralysis. They said to him: "Your son Joseph is coming to you." The elder gathered his strength and sat down on his bed. Did his love for his son strengthen him? Or did the overshadowing of grace descend upon him at that moment? The dying man was revived by the life of Divine inspiration. Often in God's chosen ones, the supernatural action of the Holy Spirit is suddenly added to the natural action of man. This powerful action takes man out of his ordinary state and makes him a weapon of God. Such were Jacob's dying moments. When Joseph came to him, he said to his son: "My God appeared to me in Lusa, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, and said to me, 'I will multiply you, and I will make of you families of nations, and I will give you, and after you to your descendants, this land for everlasting possession.' For this reason let your two sons, who were born to you before I came into Egypt, be mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon shall be mine. The sons that will be born to you after them will be yours and will be called to inherit under the names of these two brothers in their inheritances. Your mother Rachel died in the land of Canaan, when I was coming from Mesopotamia and approaching Ephrathah. This {p. 41} is the same as Bethlehem. Here, on the way, I buried her." When he saw Joseph's sons, he asked him, "Who is this with you?" Joseph answered, "These are my sons, whom God has given me here." And Jacob said, "Bring them to me, and I will bless them." The patriarch's eyes were dimmed by old age: he could not see clearly. When Joseph brought the children to him, he embraced them, kissed them, and said to Joseph: "Behold, I did not hope to see your face, but God has shown me also your children." Joseph led them away from the elder's knees, and they bowed down to the ground! Then, taking Ephraim in his right hand against Jacob's left, and Manasseh in his left hand against Jacob's right, he led them again to the elder; and the inspired elder stretched out his hands for blessing, folding them in the form of a cross: he put his right hand on the head of Ephraim, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh. For the first time, the sign of the cross appears during a blessing, the usual sign of blessing in the New Testament Church! "God," said the holy patriarch, "God, to Whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac were pleased, God, Who has protected and helped me from my infancy until now, Who delivers me from all misfortunes, may He bless these children! let them be called after my name, and after the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; let a multitude of descendants come from them." When Joseph saw that the elder had laid his right hand on Ephraim, it seemed wrong to him; he took his father's hand to put it from the head of Ephraim to the head of Manasseh, and said: "My father! You put your hands in the wrong way. Here is the firstborn: on him you shall lay your right hand." The elder did not want to do this. "I know," he said, "my son, I know that because of this there will be a multitude of offspring, and this one will be great. But his younger brother will be greater: his descendants will be a whole nation." He blessed them again. "In you," he said, "blessed be Israel! They will say, May God do to you what He did to Ephraim and Manasseh." And he said to Joseph: "I am dying. God will be with you, and will bring you back from this land to the land of your fathers. In that land I give thee a land that is superfluous before thy brethren: I have taken it from the Amorites with my sword and bow." The word of the Spirit-bearing men, remarks one great instructor of ascetics, is similar to the word of the aged Jacob: by their words they transmit to their listeners the spiritual power that lives in them, acquired by them in the struggle with sin by victories over the invisible Amorites, by evil thoughts and sensations.

The hour of the holy patriarch's death was approaching. In those last moments of earthly life, in which the soul was ready to leave the decrepit body, the Spirit of God descended, stopped the separation, poured out grace-filled life into the departing soul, into the remaining body. The dying man has come to life with the life of the age to come. The elder hurriedly demanded all his sons to him; they hurriedly flocked to him, surrounded him. He was still sitting on his bed. As they gathered, James gave them an inspired, prophetic testament. This testament breathes youthful strength and poetry, the eternal youth of the celestials and their holy poetry. There is no man here! Here the language of man was only a tool. Thus the speaking God is heard. Thus is heard God, Who speaks His will, Who with authority disposes of the future destinies of men and their remote descendants! The testament of the patriarch is a heavenly song, sung by the Spirit for the hearing of the world. This song proclaims to the world the Redeemer, and to the peoples immersed in idolatry, the illumination of the light of Christianity. "Gather yourselves," said the dying elder to his sons, as if from the realm of that age, "gather yourselves, surround me; I will tell you the future. Gather yourselves, sons of Jacob, listen to me, listen to Israel, listen to your father. Reuben is removed from the right of primacy for pleasing sensuality; Simeon and Levin did not receive them. Their propensity for bloodshed is cursed, and their offspring are destined to be scattered among the tribes of the other brethren. All the abundance of blessing opened up over Judas: he was promised civil power, fame, primacy among his brothers, and he was especially predestined to be the forefather of the Saviour, Who, the prophesied elder announced, was the expectation of the nations. The inspired patriarch pronounced a blessing to his sons, separately to each, counting the sons according to seniority. Having reached the name of Joseph, he again invoked the blessing of heaven and earth upon him and on his descendants. This blessing was truly and powerfully expressed in the prosperity which was subsequently enjoyed by the numerous descendants of Joseph.

{p. 43}

With the end of the prophetic testament, James's speech changed: it was no longer animated by delight, solemnity, and heavenly majesty. It is like a body abandoned by the soul. God, speaking through the mouth of the elder, ceased His mysterious utterances: the inspired Prophet fell silent; The dying elder begins to speak in exhaustion: "I am addressing," were the last words of Jacob, "to my people; bury me in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite. Abraham and Sarah are buried there; Isaac and Rebekah are buried there; there I buried Leah." Having said this, Jacob laid his feet on the bed and died. "He has joined his people," says the Scriptures, to those holy righteous men whom the earth has produced and brought up for heaven, whom it has already given up to the realm of eternity.

When Joseph saw that Jacob was dead, he fell on his father's face, kissing his face, his lips sealed with death, and watering his face with abundant tears. He commanded the physicians to prepare the body, according to the custom of Egypt, for burial. For forty days, the doctors made preparations to protect the body from rotting. All Egypt shared in Joseph's sorrow; For seventy days the Egyptians mourned the death of the holy elder, the ancestor of Israel. After the days of weeping, Joseph asked Pharaoh for permission to fulfill his father's will and his oath to him to bury the precious body of the righteous man in the land of Canaan. Pharaoh wished that the procession of his breastplate to the land of Canaan should be accompanied by due splendor. The whole court of the king of Egypt, all his nobles, accompanied Joseph; they had a multitude of chariots and horsemen with them. All the sons of Jacob, all his grandsons, who were capable of the journey, participated in it. The field on which this numerous assembly stopped, and where it performed its funeral lamentation, was called by the inhabitants of the country "the Lamentation of Egypt."

Having fulfilled his vow, Joseph returned to Egypt. The brothers were still troubled by the crime they had committed against him. They suspected the nobleman-brother of malice, and this pure, holy soul was capable only of goodness! Believing that Joseph did not want to disturb the tranquillity of his aged father by the spectacle of vengeance, that he was postponing vengeance until a convenient time, they came to him and said: "The father commanded before his death: 'Say to Joseph, 'Forgive them their trespass, forgive them their iniquity; they have committed a crime against thee, but thou shalt forgive them their transgression for the sake of the God of thy fathers." As they said this, Joseph wept. They fell down before him and said: "Behold, we give ourselves to you as slaves!" Magnanimous Joseph, Joseph, worthy of the blessings of earth and heaven, worthy of the blessing of the whole Christian race, the blessing of all who read the story of his edifying deeds, answered the brethren: "Do not be afraid! I am God's. You have conspired to do me evil, and God has counseled good things about me. And His purpose was fulfilled! Food was delivered to many people, and their lives were preserved. Do not be afraid: I will be the protector of you and your families." A living faith in God and a vision with the pure spiritual eye of God's Providence elevate a person above all calamities, above the terrible spiritual calamity: remembrance of malice and revenge.

The Book of Genesis is silent about the further circumstances of Joseph's life: probably, his life passed in silence and indestructible well-being. The Scriptures only say that Joseph spent the rest of his days in Egypt, saw the grandsons of Ephraim, saw the sons of Machir, the eldest son of Manasseh, and died at the age of one hundred and ten. Departing into eternity, he bequeathed to his people: "I am dying. God will visit you and bring you out of this land into the land He promised to give you. Then, when you are migrating, take my bones with you from here to the promised land." Having made this will, he reposed; His body, protected from decay, was placed in a box, prepared for the commanded transfer. And for three centuries the body of Joseph awaited the transfer, of which the will was given and accepted with such faith.

Let me die and be buried in Egypt, the land of my sojourn. But I bequeath to my children, being childless, I bequeath to my family, that they should move to the Promised Land and carry my body there with them. Children and tribe I call the thoughts that are born in my mind, the feelings that are born in my heart. My children! My Family! Leave the land of Goshen, its rich pastures, only convenient for cattle breeding. Migrate from Egypt, from this lower world, where flesh and sin reign, move to Heaven! Let my body descend for a time into the ground from which it was taken. When, stirred up by the trumpet of the resurrection, it arises from the sleep of death, you, my thoughts and feelings, winged by the Spirit, lift up the resurrected body to heaven! Heaven is promised by God to all man; not only to his soul, but also to his body! So! The time will come when God will visit man, gather his body, crumbled into dust, mixed with the earth, and revive this body. And if a person's thoughts and feelings are worthy of heaven, anointed, sealed by the Spirit, then his body will change, be glorified, take wings, and fly up to heaven together with his soul.

Epistle

to the brethren of the Sergius Hermitage

from the Babaevsky Monastery

Most beloved fathers and brethren!

Thank you for your remembrance of me, a sinner, for your love for me. May God's blessing rest upon you and upon all those who cross the sea of life for the purpose of salvation, for the purpose of attaining the Divine harbor. Whoever sees only the benefits, advantages, and pleasures of the transitory world, I have no word for him.