NOTES for Gen 50:1-26

The last chapter of Genesis tells us about Jacob's burial and about the completion of the first stage in the life of God's people through the forgiveness Joseph granted his brothers. Joseph does something completely unexpected: he forgives his brothers, forgives them in an entirely Christian way, from the heart, and not as victors sometimes forgave the defeated, first making them crawl before them on their knees and then tossing them mercy as one tosses a bone to a dog. Only someone who truly knows God and knows what a human being is before God can forgive this way. Such a person will not have any ideas about his own greatness arise in his head, just as no one who has seen the ocean will see greatness in a drop of water.