FOR HIS FINAL JOURNEY

“I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.” —Genesis 46:3, 4

The Tomb of the Patriarchs, also known as the Ibrahimi Mosque, is claimed to be the oldest building in the world still used for its original purpose.

In the center of Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank of the Palestinian Territories today, it was built by Herod the Great’s builders over the Cave of Machpelah. This was the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites about 3,800 years ago to bury his wife Sarah (see Genesis 23:16–20), the field where he was then buried, as were Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah and Jacob. Today, it is a holy site for both Jews and Muslims.

The synagogue is entered from one side of the building, the mosque from the other, with the common shrines viewed through windows on each side of the religious divide. Jacob’s burial at this site was the fulfillment of God’s promise to him as he set out on the last major journey of his wandering life. Again, it seemed that the promise of a land of his own was unfulfilled, that the journey to Egypt was a backward step, but God reassured Jacob of His plan. It had not worked out in the ways that Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob expected or hoped.

But God would still be at work in the succeeding generations.

First, Jacob would be reunited with his lost son, Joseph.

Then a cavalcade of his sons, as well as all the senior officials of Egypt, would bring back Jacob’s body to be buried in this sacred family site (see Genesis 50:1–13), still celebrated by the Jewish people as the first portion of the land of Canaan acquired by the father of their nation.