Genesis 49:28-33 "All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. And 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."
Jacob had come to the end of his days. He had related to his sons his blessing for each of them according to what was appropriate. They were commanded by Jacob that they would not lay his body to rest in Egypt. He was to be carried to the place of his forebears and his wife, Leah. There he would be buried.
When Jacob finished speaking, it was like he had consumed the last of his strength. He had been sitting on the side of his bed. As soon as he was finished, he lifted his feet up on the bed. He laid down and yielded up the ghost. His days were done, and he was gathered unto his people.
The literal explanation of these verses is straightforward. It is the story of Jacob’s last hours in this world. It tells the story of a man who had seen both joy and sorrow. By faith in God, he had borne these things. In that faith, he prophesied and laid down peacefully.
I realize that, like Jacob, I will come to the end of my days here on earth. But there is another sense to this that gives me great comfort and encouragement. While we are still alive in body, there is a sense in which we die when we come to the service of God. We become dead to the desires and longings of the flesh that we might find peace in Him.
We surrender our lives in obedience to the will and purpose of God. This does not make us His children, but rather is evidence that we are His children. As we give up our desire to His purpose, we find that we are gathered to people that are ours. We are drawn to others who have experienced the love and peace of Jesus in their lives. We come into a purchased possession that we ourselves did not pay for. While I await that death that shall remove the life from this body for a season, I rejoice in the death that has already removed my desire for the pleasures of sin and given me a desire for the things of God!