“¹⁰Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father.”

– Genesis 50:10 (NKJV)

“Then they came to the threshing floor (where the wheat is separated from the chaff, for though both the people of Israel and the Egyptian people went up en masse under the headship of Joseph and Pharaoh, not all were sincere and many harboured impure motives in their hearts, not unlike another scene where the makings of bread * become a stumbling block used to discern the hearts of large groups of men, namely at the multiplying of the loaves where Our Lord so wisely pointed out: “most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled [John 6:26]. This then becomes even more pointedly overt when we consider the fact that Joseph came (to the Egyptians) and went ahead (of the Israelites) to save them from a temporary, earthly demise in the midst of a great famine, but in his capacity as a Christ-type he ultimately came to save them from an eternal demise in a great spiritual famine; those who hold fast merely to the temporal benefits of the former but do not receive the latter which is True Everlasting Life, is here separated from those who have shown themselves approved [2 Tim 2:15] within this first round of sanctification [John 6:66]: for the setting apart of those in whose hearts The Seed of Life is anchored in fertile soil [Matt 13:1-9] and will ultimately bear good fruit) of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan (now on hallowed ground from a territorial point of view, such as are unworthy of The Promised Land “beyond the Jordan” must literally “be weeded out” [Matt 13:30]), and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation (truly what we recognise here is a mourning for those who will die in their trespasses, having seen and heard the coming of The Kingdom of God but turned aside [Matt 22:5], who will die – as is the stark theme around which all these events are centred and upheld in The Spirit, namely the death of Jacob – but who, unlike him, will not be raised to new life (which is of course cause for great rejoicing), and so are fit only to be mourned with a very “great and very solemn lamentation“). He (Joseph) observed (as lead by The Spirit apart from- and prior to receiving any formally instated laws to this effect) seven days (until the process is complete) of mourning (in extrapolation of the theme above, reminding us of our Lord as He laments: “Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” [Luke 19:41-42]) for his father (but let us not neglect to be moved to compassion for Joseph the man who sees but in part [1 Cor 13:9] and in these moments is yet grieving for the beloved father [imitating the relationship revealed to us in John 15:9A] having been awarded but a brief reunion season in the earth, now suffering as Jacob once suffered when he in turn was led to believe that Joseph had perished; how precious then to behold that in an ultimate sense Jacob’s Joy upon learning that Joseph lives will be imitated when they are again reunited in the heavenlies and Joseph learns that truly, truly his father also lives, eternally).”

* pointing unto The True Bread [John 6:22-59], The Very Word- [John 1:14], The Son of The Father’s Love [Col 1:13-14 (NKJV); John 3:35].