By faith Joseph believed the promise of God to Abraham about the promised land (Genesis 17:8). At the time they were in Egypt, but God would fulfill what he had promised. How? How could they get away from Egypt, the mighty powerful state of that time?
God is not only faithful; he is also powerful. He is stronger than all the pharaohs in Egypt. Joseph mentions the exodus of the children of Israel. Why does he call them by that name? Remember that Jacob was renamed Israel when God’s power hit him; he wept and sought his favor (Genesis 32:28; Hosea 12:4). To be Israel is to trust in God’s power.
And what Joseph believed about God’s faithfulness and power, he experienced in his own life as he tells in Genesis 50:20. Through his faith in God’s promises and the experience of God’s guidance in his own life, he was sure that God would lead Israel out of Egypt into the promised land. See Genesis 50:24–26.
22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.