Many people do not ever have a question as to where they will be buried. They have lived their whole lives basically in the same place and expect to be buried in the family plot. This sounds similar to Jacob’s words at the end of his life. “Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place” (Genesis 47:29-30).
Although on the surface we might think that Jacob simply had a sentimental attachment to the family cemetery, his words hearken back to the promise that God made to him that his family would grow to be a great nation and prosper in the land of Canaan. Jacob had lived for seventeen years in Egypt, but he never considered it home. He was reminding the family that they were only sojourners in that land, and that God had promised them a home somewhere else. This is the same attitude we need to have today. We are strangers and pilgrims upon this earth (1 Peter 2:11) who are traveling through life, however long our stay, in order to reach our ultimate destination of heaven, the place of our citizenship (Philippians 3:20). Too often, we are so wrapped up in where we are that we forget who we are and where we want to go. It does not matter so much where you are buried upon this earth, but it does matter whether or not, upon death, you, as God’s child, are going home.
