GENESIS 49:28-33

“When Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and
yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people” (Gen. 49:33). This was the final scene for
this man who had become great in the sight of God and in the sight of the world. Everything was
now accomplished.
The last counsel and the last blessing had been given. The last charge had been delivered to his
sons. Then he “yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.” Jacob’s death was the
death of a believer. He yielded his spirit to God and was reunited with his own people in the
grave.
The Christian is inspired by the hope of the resurrection; the grave is not his goal. First
Thessalonians 4:16-18 says, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these
words.”
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17).

Theodore Epp
www.backtothebible.in