That Bright and Glorious Mourning

Genesis 49:29- 50:14

So Jacob senses his end is near, so after he gives his sons his "blessings" he gives them burial instructions. Even after all these years, he wants to use the spot in the cave Abraham bought from the Hittites all those years ago. It's interesting that he chooses to be buried with Leah and not Rachel. Perhaps this was the custom- to be buried with the first wife- plus it being a family cave probably helped influence the choice.

So Joseph throws himself on Jacob's dead body- and weeps and kisses him. Then the embalming begins- 40 days of embalming and 70 days of mourning.

I assume those ran concurrently- but even so, 70 days seems like a long chunk of time. I can relate to being saddened over that length of time- but this feels more like a formalistic, legalistic chunk of time set aside for mourning...wearing black, certain jolly actions prohibited, etc.

After the mourning was over- Joseph got permission to go and bury his dad- Pharaoh's officials accompany him- I'm reading this as a major sign of repect. We hardly knew this guy- but he's your father so he's special to us. Once they get there, Joseph mourns another week.

This mourning marathon puts a couple of questions into my mind.

1) Is this a ritualistic predetermined period of time? Did life really shut down for 2 months after the death of a loved one. It didn't even say that Joseph mourned, or Jacob's family- it says the Egyptians mourned for 70 days. Were they in a perpetual state of mourning for every major entity that passed on? How do you truly spend 70 days mourning someone you didn't know well?

2) What do these people know about death and heaven? I don't think I know that much and the topic is at times unnerving- but is there an even greater lack of knowledge about a better place demonstrated in their perpetual sadness? They don't know about Jesus- they don't even have the law yet. Jacob refers to his impending death as "I am about to be gathered to my people" which I take to mean buried with my family. If they think earth is all there is to life then it could explain why the mourning was so extensive.

I recently attended a funeral where there was extensive laughter, not as the result of funny stories or warm memories- an odd nearly manic laughter seemingly from joy at the heavenly destination of the departed. It felt really strange to me- I think a celebration of a man's life is highly appropriate at his passing- but this seemed to be nervous laughter- a little too loud and a little too long. And I wonder if maybe the value of purging feelings of grief- even if they aren't ritualistically expressed- and even if they don't last two months would help us to move on more than a forced smile and a choked laugh.

We are thankful for the destination- but it doesn't remove the grief. At least not totally.