"And Joseph's bones which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt were buried at Schechem...." Josh 24:32
Finally -- some 400 years later -- Joseph's bones are buried. I wonder who's been responsible for keeping up with the sack of bones? Someone's had charge of them for the last four hundred years, right? Perhaps they were passed down in a family like your aunt's ashes in an urn. Maybe were they were divided - "Great, we've got 'em all here except the left femur. Ok, people, who's got that femur? It's time to put this project to bed!
Maybe they forgot who had them?
"I thought Uzziel had them?""No, No, Zuriel had them last. I'm sure of it.""Noooooo, I talked to him and he said his wife would let him keep them in the tent so he gave them to Shimel.""Yeah, but Shimel is of the people who make spittoons of bronze and hunt with dogs and he couldn't keep his best birddog away from Joseph. I'd swear on a stack of stone tablets that he gave them Mahli. Or was that Mushi? I can't keep those two straight."
Finally, Joseph's bones are laid to rest in the Promised Land. It's almost symbolic. So much is passed and laid to rest. There direct connect to Moses and to the miracles that freed them from Egypt are long ago laid to rest, too. It is all distant memory no and the voices are silenced that will remind them. Gone and buried.
Lord knows.
My post last year on this date.
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