For many of us, a new phenomenon has crept upon us that we are least prepared for. Worse still, this is a generation that is so wrapped up in itself, that the care of their aged is seen as an unwanted burden, their status in life notwithstanding. Indeed, when the Lord spoke through Isaiah the prophet, saying:

Listen to Me [says the Lord], O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, you who have been borne by Me from your birth, carried from the womb: Even to your old age I am He, and even to hair white with age will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; yes, I will carry and will save you. Isaiah 46:3-4 (AMPC)

He meant what He said, doing what He does best, there is always a precedent, and example to follow before a narrative becomes a precept or commandment. What He declared in Isaiah was already patterned in Joseph, who took care of aged Jacob:

While he was still alive—Hurry and go up to my father and tell him, your son Joseph says this to you: God has put me in charge of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not delay. You will live in the land of Goshen, and you will be close to me–you and your children and your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and all you have. And there I will sustain and provide for you, so that you and your household and all that are yours may not come to poverty and want, for there are yet five [more] years of [the scarcity, hunger, and starvation of] famine. Genesis 45:9-11 AMPC and

Even in death—Then Joseph fell upon his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph ordered his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Then forty days were devoted [to this purpose] for him, for that is the customary number of days required for those who are embalmed. And the Egyptians wept and bemoaned him [as they would for royalty] for seventy days. And when the days of his weeping and deep grief were past, Joseph said to [the nobles of] the house of Pharaoh, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, to Pharaoh [for Joseph was dressed in mourning and could not do so himself], saying, My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die; in my tomb which I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me. So now let me go up, I pray you, and bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said, Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear. And Joseph went up [to Canaan] to bury his father; and with him went all the officials of Pharaoh–the nobles of his court, and the elders of his house and all the nobles and elders of the land of Egypt And all the household of Joseph and his brethren and his father’s household. Only their little ones and their flocks and herds they left in the land of Goshen. And there went with [Joseph] both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company. And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond [west of] the Jordan, and there they mourned with a great lamentation and extreme demonstrations of sorrow [according to Egyptian custom]; and [Joseph] made a mourning for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning for the Egyptians. Therefore, the place was called Abel-mizraim [mourning of Egypt]; it is west of the Jordan. Thus [Jacob’s] sons did for him as he had commanded them.  For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, which Abraham bought, along with the field, for a possession as a burying place from Ephron the Hittite. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brethren and all who had gone up with him. Genesis 50:1-14 AMPC

As Joseph was, would you be a vehicle of God in fulfilling His promise? Status is of no consequence as we shall see in the second part, rather a sacrificial heart filled with gratitude, God will empower.

Consider the words of poem by Ocholi Ojonimi Okutepa

“Don’t write me a lie when I lie down in death
Don’t cry tears at my human end when you caused me more tears while I lived…
Don’t wait for my transition to glory before you connect with the love you claim to have for me.
Don’t sing my praise when I am gone when you lied on me while I lived.

If you have anything, do it now that I am here.
If any love, show it now that I breath.
If any tales, tell it now that my ears can hear.
If any kindness, it is now I can feel it, for when I am gone, it will fall on a dead grave.

Don’t be so gracious at my grave, when you were mendacious to my name while I was.
For at my grave, the grace’s you extend have no further use.
At my end, your lies have no meaning.
While I sleep, it is so deep that nothing counts”

Do the right thing when your aged ones are still alive. Shalom.



Pastor Afolabi Oladele