Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Genesis 49:28-33 (NIV)
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him. The Death of Jacob
29 Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. 31 There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. 32 The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.” 33 When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.
Is there a cemetery where several of your ancestors are buried? Or have you ever returned to your childhood home with your siblings? The people and places of our past have shaped us and made us who we are. When we read the scriptures and enter the stories of people like Jacob and Joseph we are putting down roots and becoming something new. God is doing something in us. Jacob becomes our ancestor. Joseph becomes our brother. God is at work creating us and making us part of His story and a member of His family. You have roots, you are part of a family, and God has a place for you in His “old, old story” (Hankey, I Love to Tell the Story).