Genesis 47: 7-12: “And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh. And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.”
Jacob though that he had a long life without much joy. He called his life a pilgrimage and said that his hundred and thirty years had been few and evil. However, our lives are good or bad as a result of our attitude rather than the things that happen to us. When Jeremiah looked forward, inspired by God, to a future day he said that the Lord’s people in that future day would be satisfied. (“And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.” Jer 31: 14) Jeremiah was talking about a day when the Lord’s people would understand that He loved them with an everlasting love and had bound them to Himself with the cords of lovingkindness (Jer 31: 3 “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”) The major issue in our lives is what we think about rather than where we are or what is happening to us. However, even in the middle of his pity party, Jacob still blessed Pharaoh because he had inherited God’s blessings and the only thing to do when we have God’s blessings is to pass them on to others. After that Pharaoh officially allocated him some land.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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