Genesis 46

"Then Israel said to Joseph, 'At last I can die, now that I have seen your face and know you are still alive!'"

Genesis 46:30

This is such a silly phrase, when you think about it, but it's also one of the most commonly quoted bible verses - even though most people don't realize where it comes from.  It makes you wonder... what other common quotes come straight out of the bible that we don't even think about?

But what does this phrase really mean?  Jacob is so thrilled to see his youngest and most beloved son still alive that he is instantly a man at peace.  At peace with the world, with himself, with his God.  Before this point, when he thought that Joseph was dead and lost forever, he had no hope.  As we can see from the previous chapters, he has been quite cynical and self-deprecating.  Now, he's the happiest man alive.

It's amazing how God can make changes like that happen in our lives!  His blessings are capable of turning the worst sorrow into joy.  That's even the closest meaning for the word blessing that we really have in the English language: to make someone happy.  I call it happification, or to happify (don't you just love making up your own words?).

So God has made Jacob (Israel) so happy that he's ready to die...  Or at least, so happy that - if he did die - he'd die a happy man with a complete life.  I think that's the biggest thing that most people mean when they use this phrase: my life feels complete again!  We humans abhor the idea of living incomplete lives.