As a kid I used to swear my loyalty to a cause with the phrase cross my heart, hope to die, stick a thousand needles in my eye. After such a promise my devotion remained unquestioned.

At the end of his life, Jacob asked a pledge of his son Joseph. If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.

Promising with a hand under a thigh sounds strange to our ears, but at the time it signified a solemn guarantee. No stronger vow existed. To agree meant I’ll do it or die trying.

God’s promise to Abraham passed down through Isaac to Jacob and centered on the land of Canaan. To return to the land—even for burial—focused the minds of these patriarchs. Later, Joseph on his deathbed asked to have his bones carried to the promised land, which Moses took care to do several hundred years later.

Shortly after the death of his father, Joseph followed through on his promise, leading a large retinue of family and friends in a weeks-long funeral procession into the promised land.

Joseph’s unfailing devotion to his father echos to this day, a beautiful refection of how God placed his hand under our thigh and promised—never will I leave you nor forsake you.

Genesis 47 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Ave Calvar