Genesis 50:22-26

22 So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years.23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own. 24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Those are the last sentences of Genesis. Like all great stories, Genesis ends with a note of sadness and with a few loose ends. Joseph dies, but unlike Jacob his father, he is not buried back in the Promised Land. Before his death, he tells his descendants that they will need the help of God to get out of Egypt and return to the Promised Land, and he makes them promise that when that day finally comes they will carry his bones with them back to the land of his fathers. And then he dies, and is embalmed after the custom of the Egyptians.

And so Genesis ends and the last sentence will take your breath away: The book closes with Joseph as a mummy in Egypt.

Genesis concludes with Abraham’s family—the children of Israel— living in Egypt, outside of the Promised Land.

Exodus is the story of their rescue, and we begin reading it on Monday!

P.S. The children of Israel never forgot their promise to Joseph. And generation unto generation, they were reminded that the day would come when God would bring them out of slavery, and that when that day came, they were to carry the bones of their brilliant ancestor Joseph with them. And so, this is what happens when the long- awaited Exodus finally occurs, so many centuries later:

19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place” [Exodus 13:19].

I said before that Genesis ends without all the loose ends tied up. That may be true, but you know what?

In God’s time, all loose ends are eventually tied up. There are no details that the author of Creation forgets.