Let's read verses 7 through 10. Genesis 47, 7 through 10. 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 in 130 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. It was over a year ago that we
began studying Jacob. In chapter 25 is where his story
begins, where he was born. And we've been studying his life
for over a year now. His life is drawing to a close.
The story of Jacob is the story of every son of Jacob. The child
of God, every chosen, loved, and redeemed child of God. It's a story of how God chose,
loved, taught, brought, and chastens all of His people. A lifelong
trial of chastening. Jacob's was 147 years. Ours is half that. The story
of Jacob is the story of Joseph. The story of Joseph. The story
of Jacob. Their lives are bound up in one
another. And as we've seen, Joseph represents
our Lord Jesus Christ. And the lives of his people and
his life is bound up, they're bound up together. All the lives
of Christ and his people. are interconnected. All that
happened to Jacob, all the troubles and the trials, all the troubles
he caused and all the troubles others caused him were to the
praise of the glory of God's grace God's sovereign saving
grace and for Jacob's good. Every single thing that happened
to Jacob was for his good. Everything. He called them evil
things. And it's all to finally bring
him to where he is now. He's with Joseph. He's with the
Son, and that's where He's going to stay, never to leave again
and be with Him forever. And that's a picture of all of
God's people being brought to Christ. All that happened to
Joseph has a picture of Christ. All that happened to him, his
sufferings, his persecution, his imprisonment, his being raised
from pit to the throne, was for God's glory and to save Jacob. and his son. And now Joseph is
on the throne, reigning and ruling, and he brings his old dad before
Pharaoh to present him. And everything, truly all things
work together for God's glory, for Christ's glory, for the salvation
of God's people according to God's infinitely wise purpose
ordered in all things in Christ. And sure, take comfort in that. Now Joseph has already presented
his brethren to Pharaoh, and lastly he presents Jacob. And I thought, how fitting is
that? Jacob is always last. But the last shall be first. And in the eleventh verse it
says, Joseph placed his father first. So those that are last
will be placed in the land first. Now Jacob's an old man. He'll
forgive me if I get the names mixed up, Jacob and Joseph. We've
been talking about both so much. But Jacob's an old man now. He's
130 years old. I'm sure he's very feeble at
this time, but he still has 17 more years to live in Egypt.
And he's brought before Pharaoh, verse 7, Joseph brought in Jacob,
his father, and sent him before Pharaoh. He must have been very
feeble. They had to go and carry him all the way, and they brought
him in and sent him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Now, he's brought before Pharaoh. Pharaoh's the greatest man on
earth. He's the highest ruler in the
land, in the world. at that time. He's the richest,
most powerful man on earth. And here this old man named Jacob
is brought in before the richest, most powerful man, highest ruler
in the world, and it says that Jacob blessed Pharaoh. not vice versa. It does not say
that Pharaoh blessed Jacob. It says that this old man, this
old unknown old man is about to die, blessed This rich and
powerful man, Pharaoh. And Paul said in Hebrews 7, without
all contradiction, this is without contradiction, the less is blessed
of the better. Without all contradiction, the
less is blessed of the better. Pharaoh was blessed by Jacob. And what we need to see is that
things are not as they seem. Not then, not now. Who was the
true king here in this picture of these two men? Pharaoh is
the king on earth. Scripture says that God has made
his people kings and priests. And they'll reign forever. Pharaoh
is just another in a line of many Pharaohs. Okay? They all died. Their reign, their
rule ended. Jacob right now sits at the right
hand of the throne on high. Who is rich here in this picture? And who is poor? Jacob or Pharaoh? Who does God love? Who is favored by God? Who is the blessed one standing
here? Who has the blessing? here between
these two men? Jacob or Pharaoh? Who has God
blessed with the greatest blessing of all? Himself. And who is He
just using to meet the needs of the other?
You see? Which man would you rather be?
Which man would you rather be? I thought about if one of our
old men, we've got two men here, one's not here today, but two
in their eighties, both of them named Henry. What if Brother
Henry soared there from Corn Valley? Anybody know where Corn
Valley is? You have to be from there to
know. There were three. The rest of
the world has no idea and doesn't care where Corn Valley is. This
is what the Egyptians thought of Canaan. The people there were an abomination.
They were poor, lowly, nobodies from nowhere, Canaan. Brother Henry Sword there is
from Corn Valley. What if he's brought before President
Obama? What appeals brought today before
President Obama? Which man is highly favored by
God Almighty? Which man would you rather be?
Which man has what the other man needs? Things are not as they seem.
The things that are seen are temporal, but the things that
are not seen are eternal. Which man has the true blessing
of God? It's that man right there. In Isaiah 65, you need not turn,
but it says, He that blesseth himself in the earth, blesseth
himself in the God of truth. That is, If you're truly blessed
here in this life, the blessing is that you know the living and
the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. That's what
Christ Himself said, this is life eternal. This is life, true
life. to know God and His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Go to Numbers chapter 6 with
me. Most of you know this passage
well, Numbers 6, the blessing which God gave to Moses to give
to Aaron to give to all the people. This is the blessing, singular,
the blessing. I know some of you know this
well because you've sent me cards and put these verses in that
card. But here's the blessing. Now,
there's only one true blessing, and it has nothing to do with
material things. There's not one mention of one
earthly thing in this blessing. Not one. When Jacob - I think
Jacob - said something like this to favor him. And I know he did. You know, we greet one another
and we say, how are you? Or we might say, the Lord bless
you when you're leaving somebody. Well, that's the true blessing
in it. knows the Lord, and this is not
just a polite greeting here, but I believe he may have said
something to this very effect here, what the Lord gave Moses. You know Jacob didn't say to
Pharaoh, may the Lord give you riches. May the Lord make you
wealthy and famous. He's already that. Proverbs 13
says, There is he that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing. Which is most of the people,
the rich people in this world. There is he that maketh himself
rich and hath nothing. And then it says, There is he
that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. And who is
the personification of that but Jesus Christ? He who was rich
made himself poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. Was he rich? With the blessing of God, heavenly
favor. Heavenly favor. Look at Numbers
6, verses 22 and following. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons. Now, these are
sons of Jacob. Moses is the son of Jacob. Aaron
is the son of Jacob. All these people are sons of
Jacob, you see. This is the blessing of the God
of Jacob upon Jacob's son. Saying this, tell them this,
verse 23, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel.
That's Jacob saying unto them, The Lord bless thee. He's the
only one that can. He's the one that must. And keep
thee, he's the only one that can, and he must. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee. Oh, if it is, if he is, it doesn't
matter who frowns. And be gracious unto thee, God
of all grace. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee. That's Christ. And give thee
peace. You can't obtain it, he has to
give it. And they shall put my name upon
the children of Israel." What's that? Sons of God. Behold how
the Father hath blessed us. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. Jacob would say this, wouldn't
he? Oh, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
on me that I should be called a son of God. Not Pharaoh. Remember Moses? He refused to
be called the son of Pharaoh. He rejected all that, esteeming
greater riches, the reproach of Christ, and all the treasures
of Egypt. That's the son of Jacob. And
all the sons of Jacob were just like them. Just like them. Brethren, never be so foolish.
David was, and we are, but we shouldn't be so foolish as to
envy the prosperity of the wicked. Old Jacob has a little. He's
about to have it all. My old dad's on Social Security.
He's going to die in obscurity. But he's about to have it all. Well, Pharaoh has it all down
here. He's about to lose it all forever. Who would you rather be? Who would you rather be? Many
times the sons of God appeared before the sons of Pharaoh. Pharaoh
and his sons and kings and rulers. Many times. Moses, as you recall,
stood before the shepherd Moses. Nobody knew him up to this point. Well, they forgot him. He was
in Egypt, but long forgotten. But he stood before Pharaoh.
Remember that? And with boldness said, let my people go. Daniel
stood before Nebuchadnezzar, King Darius, didn't he? Elijah stood before Ahab and
said, it's not going to rain until I say so. Jesus Christ
stood before Herod and Pilate. Which man was blessed? Which
man was in chains? Which man was ruling? Which man
would you rather be with? In Exodus chapter 9, God says,
and Paul quoted it in Romans 9. Exodus 9, Romans 9. Paul quoted it. He said, for
this purpose, speaking of Pharaoh, Scripture saith to Pharaoh, for
this purpose have I raised you up. To do what? To provide for
my people. To provide all the needs of my
people. I'm going to make you rich, that they might have a
little bit of it. To provide for their earthly
needs. And then I'm going to dump you in the river. Is that right? That's exactly
right. Whom He will. Whom He will. He
saves and chooses. Whom He will, He hardens. Remember
these verses for your comfort. Daniel chapter 4. Go over there
to Daniel chapter 4. This is what Nebuchadnezzar found
out. This is what Darius found out. This is what all these kings
found out concerning these poor Israelites, Daniel and his three
friends, Ananias, Zechariah, Moshe, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. This is what the rulers found
out. This is what Daniel preached,
what Daniel knew. what we need to know for our
comfort. Daniel chapter 4, verse 17. You have it? Daniel 4, 17. This
matter is by the decree of the watchers. That's the preachers
and prophets whom God has sent. This is the decree and demand
by the Word of the Holy One to the intent. This is the purpose. Everything is by decree and a
purpose. that the living may know, that
the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever
he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men." Even the
worst of men that had been put in power to reign and rule had
been put there by God. There is no power but of God. Look at verse 34. You know these
verses all how we love. What Nebuchadnezzar found out,
we have always known, that Nebuchadnezzar said, he lifted up his eyes to
heaven, he said, my understanding returned. Most people, their
understanding is darkened. They're without understanding.
But the Lord must give this understanding. What is that? He said, Oh, I
blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever,
whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is
from generation to generation. His kingdom, an everlasting,
eternal, unseen kingdom. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. His will, not man's will. There's only one free will. God. Isn't that what that's saying?
And the inhabitants of the earth, none can stay His hand. We don't
let God do anything. He lets us do everything. Or say unto Him, what doest thou?
Question Him. He does as He will with whom
He wills. And he says, Nebuchadnezzar said, at the same time, my reason
returned to me. For the glory of my kingdom,
mine honor and brightness returned unto me. My counselors, my Lord,
sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom. Excellent majesty
was added unto me. Now he knows who really reigns. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the King, capital K, of heaven, all whose
works are truth, his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride.
He is able and you can count on it. He will abase and bring
down. The Lord of heaven, Isaiah wrote,
hath purposed it to stain the pride of all glory and to bring
into contempt all the honorable of the earth, because he that
glorieth let him glory in the Lord. So old Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh asked him a question. Go back to our text. In verse
8, Pharaoh asked him a typical question, one that we always
ask when we see someone old. And Brother Matthew Henry said
the Egyptians, and I don't know how he knew this, but they were
very studious men, those old writers. But he said the Egyptians
didn't live as long as the Canaanites. That fit in, didn't it? And so
this old man who came in before Pharaoh, he was very We were
curious about this old man. He was a wonder to Pharaoh, this
really old man. And he asked him what we generally
ask an old person, how old art thou? Pharaoh said unto Jacob,
how old art thou? How old are you? You know, I thought about this.
It wouldn't surprise me if old Jacob had a youthful look at
least in his face, because that's what grace does. You want to
know how to get the dew of youth on your brow? The grace of God
in your heart. Look at Brother Henry. He's bodily
old, but he looks like he did the day I met him. Doesn't he,
Sam? Oh, my. That's the grace of God
in the heart to put the dew of youth on your brow. But Jacob's
answer was this. How old art thou, old man? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh,
verse 9, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred
and thirty years. Few in evil have the days of
the years of my life been and have not attained, I have not
reached the days of the years of the life of my fathers and
the days of their pilgrimage." Oh my, there's so much here.
I want you to turn quickly to Psalm 90 with me. Psalm 90. Many of you, if not most, know
it well. We've looked at it often. Psalm 90. Jacob thought of his
life in days. He said, the days of the years.
He thought of his life in days as we should. We should. This is what Moses, his great-grandson,
says to us in Psalm 90. This is a Psalm of Moses, verses
9 and 10. All our days are passed away
in thy wrath. That is, If we look around, we
would see not only the blessings of God, but the wrath of God
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, which ought to create some fear.
It does in God's people, like the Israelites in Egypt when
all those plagues were happening. They saw it, didn't they, as
what? The love of God? The wrath of God. And the means
of getting them out of Egypt. You hear that? All that happened
was the means of getting them out of Egypt, fleeing the wrath
to come, like rain in Noah's day. But verse 9 says, We spend
our years as a tale that is told. Our tale has already been told. You know that? Oh yeah, it's
already been ordered, I'm sure. Written down in the Lamb's Book
of Life, it's as good as done. Verse 10, the days of our years
are threescore years and ten. Now, right before the flood,
God told Noah, He said, our spirit's not always going to strive with
man. His days would be 120 years after
the flood. Noah lived 350 years after the flood. What did he see after
the flood? From nothing to what? What have we seen in just 35
years? That he lived a long time, but
man lived 120 years, then he cut it down to 70, because he's
so sinful. And if by reason of strength,
verse 10, fourscore, 80 years, God-given strength, not yours,
and not the diet you practice, that's not going to add 60 seconds
to your life. It might help the quality of
your life, but it's not going to add five cents to your life,
because your days are numbered with the Lord, and you cannot
pass. You cannot pass. And this is
what he says. In verse 10, he says, there's
strong labor, strength labor, strong labor, hard labor. That's
what he told Adam, didn't he, in the garden. Sweaty or brown. Well, it's going to be the day
you die. You're not going to retire. And
sorrow, full of sorrow. He told that to the woman, didn't
he? Nothing's changed. And sorrow. He's soon cut off. We fly away.
Verse 12, So teach us to number our year, no, days, that we may
apply our hearts to what? Seeking, getting money. Wisdom. Read Proverbs 8. It will tell you, the Lord will
tell you, I have riches. Wisdom, He says, riches with
me are everlasting, better than fine gold, sweeter than honey. Get me with all you're getting.
Get wisdom. Oh, you teach us to number our
days. That's what Jacob said, didn't
it? And it's what every son of Jacob
needs to know and do, is number our days. The days of the years
of my pilgrimage. And I added up the days for you. If you live 70 years, you have
25,550 days. I've got maybe 3,000 days left. Now buddy, that will wake you up when you start
numbering days. You think of a year from now,
that's a long time. You think of days, that's not
very long, not very long at all. Scripture says, what is your
life? And some of you, it's over. Some of you in here said, it's
not past due, but it's over. That means every day is a gift. What is our life? It's a vapor.
It's here for a little while, and then it's gone. I thought
of Psalm 103. The Lord knows our frame. He
remembers that we're dust, dust or sand. He says, man, his days
are grass, the flower of the field. He flourishes, the wind
passes over it and it's gone, and the place thereof will know
it no more than the wind. We were walking, me and you and
I were walking on the beach and we walked about a mile. It was
a mile to the end of this beach we were on and a mile back. We
did that nearly every day. And we'd walk to the end of the
beach and we'd leave footprints in the sand. And on the way back,
they were gone. And nobody had any idea that
we'd been there. And that's us. That's every one
of us. Well, my granddaughters don't
know a thing about My wife's parents, two sweet
people that I'm very fond of and love, they don't know a thing
about your mother-in-law, Sam. They've never known her. Your
children haven't known her. Someone very dear to us, very
dear to us. The place thereof will know it
no more. Nobody will even ever know you
existed but one person. What does it matter if the whole
world knows me and God knew me not? That's what He said to Son,
I never knew you. But what does it matter if nobody
knows me? if the Lord does. The days of my pilgrimage, Jacob
said. The days of my pilgrimage. That's what the sons of Jacob,
when they were brought in to Pharaoh, they all asked him,
they said, can we just sojourn here? We don't want to stay here
forever. We just want to sojourn. Just
give us a little place to stay a while. Pitch our tents. It doesn't say, Abraham and Isaac,
I was going to have you turn to Hebrews 11, my time is gone. But doesn't it say that they
all dwelled in tents? Well, brethren, so do we. We
have here no continuing city. We dwell in a temporary tabernacle. Like our Lord who tabernacled
among us in an earthly body. Now in that, oh my, my pilgrimage,
Jacob's a stranger in a pilgrimage to Egypt, and so are we. Our
Lord said, they are not of this world, even as I'm not of this
world. He went back to his father, didn't
he? And so shall we. And Jacob's going to go back
to his father, Abraham and Isaac. That's what he said there. My
fathers, they were pilgrims too. And he went back to his father. Abraham and Isaac, and especially
God, His Father, He's just passing through. He's on His way to the
promised land. We want to look at the last of this chapter.
Make sure to be here. On when Jacob said, Bury me not
in Egypt. Don't bury me in Egypt. And old Jacob's there right now.
You know that? Jacob's there right now in the city of God
with the people of God. Right now. Been there a long
time. Joseph stayed. The truck driver. And the king,
Joseph. Right side to side. This is no
different. Saved by grace. Verse 9 in our
text, go back there, I've got to quit. Verse 9, he says, the
days of the years of my life have been few and evil. Few and
evil. Few and evil. A man that is born
of woman is of what? How many days? Few. Few days
and what? Full of what? Trouble. That's what he meant. Called
evil. You know why he calls them evil?
It's because of the evil in us called sin. Jacob longed to be
done with himself. And the evil all around us, doesn't
the Lord call this world, this present evil world? The world of iniquity. You know
what that wilderness was called that they wandered through? The children of Israel, sons
of Jacob, ended up wandering through for forty years. You
know what the wilderness was called? The wilderness of sin. Not paradise. This world is not
paradise. And we long, like Jacob, to be
taken out of it. We long to be taken out of this
world, and we long for this world to be taken out of us. David
said it. I'll behold thy face in righteousness,
and I'll be satisfied, and I won't be satisfied until I awake with
thy likeness." Oh, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness. They're going to have Him. They're
going to have Him. Well, he said, these days have
been evil. Contrary to belief, though, our
days No matter what comes our way, all the trials, the evil,
what men call evil, what they think of as terrible things,
trials, tribulations, troubles, even sin and sorrow are good. Good for us. Wean us from this
world. Make us hunger and thirst for
righteousness as I said. Make us long to be like Christ.
And make us want to leave this place. Make us want to leave
this place. And the greatest proof of God's
goodness in using evil is what? The cross of Christ. He said,
I haven't attained, verse 9, this is the regrets of an old
man who was a sinner for all his life and one who caused much
pain himself and took much of the blame, although he needs
to know that God did it all according to His purpose. But he said,
I haven't attained to the days of the years of the life of my
fathers and the days of their pilgrimage. It says concerning
Abraham and Isaac, both of them lived longer, but that's not
what he's talking about. That's not what Jacob's saying.
They lived longer, and it said when they came to their death,
it says that they died in peace and gathered to
their people in a good old age full of years and full of days.
That's what it says. They were gathered to their people.
Jacob was too, gathered to his people. But he died full of regrets. Full of regrets. And you're wondering concerning
Psalm 37. It says, you mark the perfect
man. The end of that man is peace. It is. It always is. Always is. Jacob has no regrets now, you
see. He knows. But Jacob was such a fearful, unbelieving... And I'm glad, I'm glad the Lord
used Jacob. I'm glad the Lord spent 25 chapters
in his book about one man. Jacob. Because he's such a picture
of sovereign love. Sovereign election. Sovereign
keeping grace. Sovereign mercy. In spite of
everything Jacob was and did and didn't do and where he was,
he ended up in the arms of his Lord, the
Saved Man. I don't want to die with regrets.
We all have many. Better to be like Joseph, isn't
it? Better to be like Joseph and Jacob. But I tell you what,
they're both going to be saved. One's just going to live with
more peace, Joseph. You're talking about evil. Could
Joseph have said? What could have Joseph said about
his life? I've been done wrong. I've been put in prison. What
did our Lord say? Oh, Jacob. Go and die in peace. All right. May the Lord bless
that.