this morning we turn to genesis chapter 47 genesis chapter 47 as we looked last sunday morning and evening at genesis and this morning we come to really actually it's the end of chapter 46 verse 31 and then we'll read the first half of 47 through verse 12 first book of the bible if visitor. We've been working through the study and are nearing the completion of it. Genesis chapter 46 beginning at verse 31. This is the word of the Lord. Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh and will say to him, my brothers and my father's household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me and the men are shepherds for they have been keepers of livestock and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have. When Pharaoh calls you and says, what is your occupation? You shall say, your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, my father and my brothers with their flocks and herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen. And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were. They said to Pharaoh, We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen. And if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock. Then Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and stood him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, how many are the days of the years of your life? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, the days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few in evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they've not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of egypt in the best of the land in the land of ramses as pharaoh had commanded and joseph provided his father his brothers and all his father's household with food according to the number of their dependents may the lord bless this morning the hearing of his word it dawned on me this past week as i was reflecting on this passage meditating on this passage the remarkable incredible truth that comes out in the scriptures when it says how wonderful it is that God chose to inspire Jacob I have loved. Jacob I have loved. Most people get hung up on the Esau I have hated but for the first time in my life I think I'm beginning to understand the marvel of that first part, which we never really marvel over. We think that's just something that should be natural, something that God should do. God's love, therefore He should love everyone. I'm finally coming to grips with how radical a statement it is, Jacob, I have love. Where do I find in the Scriptures, Abraham I've loved? Isaac I've loved? Moses I've loved. It's not that he didn't love them. Of course he loved them. But that God chose to tell us in a very special way, Jacob I've loved. Why did God do that? Why of all people? Well, the short answer is God wanted you to understand the marvels of grace and the depths of love toward the most difficult in the Bible I would think to love. The most difficult. He was the greatest rebel of them all. There was nothing attractive about this man, outwardly speaking, his whole life, his choices, what he did. God loved him. It's a marvel. And you only understand, begin to understand when you realize that that hatred because of sin should be the response toward everyone, right? Jacob I've loved. What conclusion would God want you to draw if he decided by his Spirit to inspire something like that? What conclusion would he want you to draw? Well, it seems to me there's one great conclusion that he would want us all to draw. If he could love a man like that, then he could love me too. Then he could love you too. The whole story puts on display the marvels of grace in a radical way. And this morning, we return now after some time to really closing down the life of Jacob. Everything has been building for us to see the Lord's deliverance of Jacob. And his plan unfolds, and Jacob now sees it. Jacob now is beginning to understand it. After all these years of going through his life and doing what he wanted to do, He's finally seeing in the twists and turns of life that God had intended what he saw as hardship. He had intended it all for good. When for so long, he refused to see that. And what we have this morning is, in this passage, a sort of summary of how Jacob looks over his life. You ever thought about when you get to be, if the Lord gives you many years on this earth, and you look back over your life, what would you say about it? How would you characterize it? What would you describe about your life? What would you say? What do you think he's going to say? Would you say right now, looking over the course of your own lives, that you had a life that was good, hard, full of difficulty, full of struggle? What would it be? You have described his own struggle living as a pilgrim, a traveler, a sojourner of all this language used of the patriarchs, going through this life, going somewhere else, and he's starting to express that as he looks back over his life and he understands this. But I have to say, as I wrestled through this passage this last week, I struggled with how to structure this particular section. What I want to do this morning is interact with his confession, his statement, the summary of his life before Pharaoh. It's a remarkable moment when you look at the whole picture here, who he is standing in front of. And I believe we learn a lot from this about the life of faith, good and bad, what God desires of us, and what kind of response he wants from us to his marvelous plan of redemption. Marvelous. When I was a basketball player, I had many good coaches in college. I had bad coaches. Sometimes I learn just as much from the bad coaches. This is an interesting moment before Pharaoh. I see good and I see bad. And I want to ask the question with you this morning, what kind of response do we get from somebody who's now seeing and looking back over his life? There are really three ways I chose to break it down here. I want to begin with his witness, and then we'll look at his perspective and then his blessing. So let's start with the witness, which I think really stands out here. Last time, we had the grand reunion. It was a glorious section of Genesis where Jacob had come face to face with his son. A moving section. It was so emotional. Many of you came up to me and said that. I can't believe how emotional this all has been. He received his son back from the dead, so to speak. And now we're turning to the place of Israel in the land of Egypt. This is all setting up for the future. Genesis is really preparation for Exodus. And everything in our text this morning is focusing now, as they're being situated in the land, on Jacob's presentation before Pharaoh. You'll see that there in verse 7 of chapter 47. Then Joseph brought in, brought Jacob his father and stood before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh blessed, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, how many are the days of the years of your life? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, the days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. And they've not attained to the days of the years of the life. of my fathers in the days of their sojourning. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. If you get into the heart of that, this is the platform from which we can understand what is happening now in Egypt to Jacob and his son. This is where I'm working this morning from this little statement he makes in front of Pharaoh. It's so telling. But you can't minimize the event. It's a glorious event. Here's Jacob, 130 years old, sat before the worlds of that time, the greatest monarch, the greatest monarch of the greatest empire of the day, if you will. And here's this aged Jewish shepherd who's a nobody in the eyes of the Egyptians presented to Pharaoh, standing. I don't know if you can picture this, but you know, we have records of things. When people were presented to Pharaoh of how that went and what was expected and how they were to present themselves. Pharaoh, remember, boys and girls at this time, he was considered to be a god. He wore the massive, remember, sign of the serpent. And he himself was considered to be the embodiment of the sun god Ra at times. In fact, in Egyptian literature, we have a description of how the people were presented before Pharaoh. A man's speech was to be pure, clean, dressed in fresh clothes, shod in white sandals, painted with eye paint, anointed with the finest oil of myrrh. Powerful moment where this aged patriarch is set before Pharaoh. Pharaoh looks at him. How old are you? First question. Egyptians valued age. Nothing like our culture. Egyptians valued age. How do you feel when you read there, the days of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they've not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their sojourning. What emotion comes to mind when you read that? I don't know about you, but you're set as God's chosen one whom he has loved in the earth in front of this man. Is that what you want to say? Is that what you want to say? And the curious thing is, Pharaoh didn't even ask for that. Doesn't that sound more like a moan than a witness? how do you take it for 20 years he had of course been in misery in the last scene he had his joy returned to him i mean what a scene right in the last in the next breath right after this glorious reception back of his son he's back moaning about his hard life i believe you see this in his whole perspective remember what he said in the heart of his afflictions earlier on when he was in the heart of his afflictions he said everything is against me everybody's against me everything's against me and you thought oh well that's a terrible thing to say but maybe i could understand that when you're in the heart of your afflictions that everyone's against you but now he's seen it all unfold he's got his son back all his sons are there he's being provided for he's got food he's living he's being protected doesn't he see the goodness of god i've known people like this i've been like this they grumble and they moan about everything that's all they know it's all they know how to do that's what they know what to do that's just the natural disposition that's the natural thing that seems to come out of their hearts they moan about this they grumble about this they moan they're never happy that's all they know it's what they know you tell them look outside the window to the beautiful creation god has made and all they see is that it's dirty in the face of the gospel they can't get out of the old way of life if you were to look over the course of decisions in jacob's life What would you come up with? Well, if you were to look over the course of his own decisions, you'd come up with a lot of evil things. He hurt his father. Do you carry guilt over how you've treated parents? He ran outside the land for years. He cheated. He stole from his brother. His sons, for a whole period of time, turned out to be menaces to society. killed a city over his raped daughter, lost a son for 22 years of his life, lost his beloved wife, Rachel, along the way, didn't love Leah. If you compiled the decisions you've made in life and you looked back at the major decisions in life, would you feel a lot of stress or maybe guilt about lack of things that you've done or things that you have done in creating messes as a father, as a mother, as a son, as a daughter? Remember the gopher. The gopher doesn't see any of that. Would it bother you? If you were to look at life that way and you were to think about life that way, what would, you know, we could all come up with some kind of statement, you know, and you might even look at people if you have seen outcomes in people's lives and you look at them and you say, they lived that tough life, hard life they've lived. You hear that about certain people, hard life they've lived. And when we dwell upon these kind of things, the kind of witness and effect it has is a moaning effect, a mumbling effect, a tale of woe. And what we're running up here against is a setting here is Jacob set set in contrast to God's plan and the choices that were contrary to the Lord's choices and how it all worked out all Jacob can see is his own choices all Jacob can see is the the sad course of his own life and here's my question this morning here's what I'm trying to billed to this morning. Is it true? Is it true that his life was few and evil? His days were few and that his life was an evil life? Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. From a human perspective, it's true. It's true. His years were few. Well, he doesn't know when he's dying yet does he he has no idea how much longer he's going to live so that's not really something he can say at this point are they evil here's the truth here's the truth in every circumstance god had been with him never left him that was his promise at bethel And the whole way through, God had been turning everything for good. When he damaged the relationship with his father, when he hurt his brother, God reconciled it, brought him back together on the deathbed, remember? Made Jacob confront his brother face to face. When he was in Haran and he was on the run and he was doing his own thing and he schemed, Uncle Laban had schemed and worked him a good one, the schemer working the schemer. Remember what happened? God turned the whole thing back around for blessing on Jacob and he left with more flocks than he had ever dreamed of. And then God fills him in that land with 12 sons, 12 sons whom God loved when his son slaughtered the Shechemites and Jacob's scared to death about the inhabitants of Canaan going to kill him. It says the terror of the Lord fell on all the land of Canaan and all the Canaanites so that they were scared to death of Jacob. God took a giant shield and surrounded his life. God would, at his lowest moment, speak to him in chapter 35. I'm changing you. I'm changing your name. It's no longer Jacob, but Israel. And all the land that I ever promised to Abraham and to Isaac, I'm giving it all to you. And in the last chapter, Jacob goes to Egypt. God comes as soon as he's standing there on the border, heading out of the land, God comes and talks to him as a father does to his child. and the Lord says to him, Jacob, I'm going to be with you. And here's what I'm going to do for you. Your son, whom you lost for 22 years, I'm going to sanctify your death and he'll be the one that will stand there and put his hand over your eyes. That's remarkable. Do you see all that the Lord has done for you? psalm 107 oh give thanks to the lord for he is good for his mercy endures forever listen this let the redeemed of the lord say so just say it whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered out of the lands from east and from the west from north and from the south they wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way they found no city to dwell in hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them then they cried out to the lord in their trouble and he delivered them out of all of their distresses and he led them forth by the right way that they may go to a city for a dwelling place oh that men would thank the lord for his goodness oh that they would just do that because they don't do it and for his wonderful works that he does to the children of men for he satisfies the longing soul and he fills the hungry soul spiritually with goodness oh that men would give thanks to the lord for his good this psalm just keeps saying it and for his wonderful works to the children of men let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declares works with rejoicing. Yet he sets the poor on high, far from affliction. He makes their families like a flock. Whoever is wise will observe these things, says, and they will understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Now, Jacob saw every bit of those things. Tell me about your life. Few and evil have been the days of my life. Are you kidding me? Is that what you want to say? Is that your witness? When you get to sit in front of Pharaoh and God gave you that, what's your attitude in the midst of hardships? See, now that turns right to us. Are you bitter? Are you sitting here this morning distressed? Are you anxious? Oh, life's this and that and everything's gone against me. Let me press you even harder this morning of God's overwhelming goodness. If you follow this, I think you'll take this and you'll meditate upon it all day because it's so wonderful. Maybe I'm assuming too much. How old does he say he is to Pharaoh? 130. Few and evil. When does he die? Few, few, few. Well, if you look down at verse 28, and Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years. Now, why does that matter? What is God telling you? Well, do the math. He came to Egypt at 130 and died at 147, giving him 17 years. Why is that significant? 17 years. How old was Joseph when he was sold into slavery? 17. God gave it back. Gave him 17 more years to enjoy his long lost son. Oh, that men would thank the Lord for his goodness. My life is hard. Come on. He's good to you. Do you see it? The other day I was in my 12th grade Sunday school class and we talked about the goodness of God. We're going through the attributes of God. I love studying the attributes of God. And they were really moved by this. And it was something that Berkhoff said in his little book on the summary of Christian doctrine. And I thought it's worthwhile just to read this short paragraph. Listen to this. God is good in himself. His goodness is that perfection of God which prompts him to deal bountifully and kindly with his creatures. It is the affection that the Creator shows and feels towards the frail creatures He has made. I just love that. Affection toward you and all of your frailty. I don't care what you're going through. The wrong response is few and evil has been the days of my life if you have Christ. If you're a Christian, you've got everything. And he's turned it all for good and he promises you he will. And here he is sitting in front of the world's most powerful leader. What opportunity? What do you say? I'm reminded of the demoniac that was cutting himself in the tombs and Jesus frees him and the man comes back sane and he comes to Jesus and he wants to be with Christ And Christ says, you know, I want you to go out and tell the Lord the wonderful things that God has done for you. It's your witness. It's what we do. And we evaluate things that way. You know, this is the kind of response and witness and perspective That a Christian should have when he knows that he has the gospel. Remember what Joseph said? I don't want you guys to be angry or grieved with yourselves because you did these things. I don't want you to do that. God sent me before you to preserve life. There's something so crucial here to understanding the forgiven life. And we think that God still holds something against us. Our disposition then is to remember those things. In fact, what is going to happen as soon as Jacob dies. If you go to chapter 50, as soon as, I'm sorry, Joseph dies, as soon as Joseph dies, no, Jacob dies, excuse me. Listen to chapter 50. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, perhaps Joseph will hate us and actually repay us for all the evil that we did to him. And Joseph had said no more grief or anger over what you've done to me. I've forgiven it. You see the struggle of people to believe forgiveness of sin? This plan has unfolded and they're having a hard time of believing how good this situation really is. And you do that when you're in the pit. i do that and here's the thing god's been there your whole life if you're a believer he's been with you he's loved you he's helped you when you cry out to him he forgives your sins he lifts you out of the pit promised you a good end that's not a tale of woe that's not a tale of woe if God himself said to you today and and you believe this is God's word that all who confess Christ as far as the east is from the west so far has he cast away so far has he done what removed your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west if God has cast them into the heart of the sea why are you trying to pull them back up it's like trying to raised the titanic he's dealt with them and here's jacob immediately after the joy of receiving his son sulking now i'm going to speak out of the other side of my mouth i think there's some really positive stuff here too which really does display the complexity of this figure and the complexity of somebody who I think is ADD. They didn't have that diagnosis back then. He's a piece of work. But I'm so encouraged by what I see here. And that's why I emphasized at the beginning, Jacob, I have love. There are bits and pieces of something that you put together here that you do see, faith. What do I mean? How old are you? I'm 130. No, that's not how he said it, did he? The days of my sojourn are 130 years. Ah, there's a word. There I have something. I've got something. Described elsewhere as a pilgrimage, described elsewhere as a temporary place, This word, meaning, why is that important? Because this was always the language of the household of faith. When he left for Haran, all those years, and then came back, and he sojourned outside the land, and he came back to the land, and now at the end of his life, he's leaving the land again, and he's never really been home. I don't know if you feel that. But one thing I know as Christians that you start really experiencing as you get older is a sense that I have nothing permanent here. He's going to die outside the land. And isn't it something that at the end of his life we see something shining here that as he's looking for something, he's looking for something permanent that he's come to realize it's not in this life. It's not even in this particular land. That's all a shadow of what God's promised me from heaven. When the New Testament describes the life of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, over and over and over, it keeps telling us something about their lives. It keeps telling us something about their lives. It's this. They confess that they seek a homeland. But it was not the one they came out of. But they confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. You might stand back and say, well, I don't, I get that, I know that. We know our home's not here. But the text is really emphasizing something that surrounds Jacob's confession before Pharaoh, Jacob's blessing, we'll get to that. It's this. There is a great danger in them coming to Egypt that they would be assimilated into Egypt. And in Joseph's mind was the concern that if they moved into mainstream Egyptian life, they would be buried in it. He wants them outside of it. He wants them in Goshen. And so he has this plan. He says, listen, you have to tell them that you deal with livestock and that you're shepherds. And so you have that whole section there of where they say that. They go to Pharaoh and they say that. Why? Because that separated them right there because Egyptians hated and were abomination to them were shepherds and those who dealt with livestock. So they go before Pharaoh and they say this. We are servants and we deal with livestock. Please let us stay in Goshen. Why did all that matter? They had secured for themselves a place separate from mainstream Egyptian life. Now what is that teaching us? That we should live in our own little communes? No, that's not what that's teaching us. They were never to become one with them. In other words, the whole picture of their time in Egypt was that of a sojourn. 400 years, yes, but a sojourn. Goshen was out to the east. It was this little plot of land that when God would bring them out, they would be out quickly. He would deliver them quickly out of there and bring them into the land of rest, milk and honey, which is teaching us about our removal quickly from this world at the right time being brought into the eternal land. Why is this important this morning? Because the Lord wants to tell you something. He's telling you, we don't belong here. The Bible pictures you all as travelers passing through and on the way learning God's goodness to you. and the lord never wanted them to forget who they were and that's why marriage was so important that's why their separate identity and being separate was so important you know the best way you can express your love for the lord going through and gratitude for his goodness it's this don't love the world or the things in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life it's all passing away the end of all things is at hand and he's got something way better Egypt is presented to us as a whole picture of living in the world Jacob sees this and in one of the worst moments of witness comes one of the brightest moments of understanding which is what made this a challenge for me undisputed the most powerful ruler in the world. Even to this day, we're still in awe of the pharaohs of Egypt. And here's this aged old patriarch, God's chosen one whom he loved. And what do you read twice to close out this section? He blessed Pharaoh. It's all backwards. The sense is, Jacob's words invoked God's favor upon this man you could imagine him maybe he raised his hands i don't know but i know this what was the promise of the abraham abrahamic covenant you will be a blessing to all the nations god won here is this man blessing the most powerful of all nations the man who and here's the twist the man who at the beginning of his life stole blessings is at the end of the life giving blessings and you abraham all the nations of the earth shall be blessed and you know what all this foreshadows it all tells us of the son the true son to come who would be faithful in his house over all things who would pray for his sheep that they even though they were left in the world that they would not become one with the world that they would be preserved and kept in the world had a big concern for that this christ who loved and who kept and who preserved and through his whole life even though he probably had a right to moan because everything that happened to him was unjust beaten stripped hated never once did he complain but for the joy that was set before him because of his love for you endured the cross and today you sit here with the promise of eternal life god's love his relentless grace his long suffering his forbearance his kindness it's all we've ever known and the knowledge of Christ and the perfect sacrifice and the text closes out this morning 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 Ramses as Pharaoh had commanded and Joseph nourished his father and his brethren and all his father's household with bread according to their families and that's what he does for you. Have you forgotten that? In the midst of being in the pit? Remember today the wonderful things that the Lord has done for you. Oh, that men would thank the Lord and praise him for his goodness. Giving you the best of the land, giving you his son. One day he's going to situate you around the throne of grace forever. Oh, tell the wonderful things that the Lord has done for you. Imagine a Satan, I close with this statement. Imagine a pilgrim who demonstrates joy in all circumstances. Speaks of the wonderful things that God has done for him and becomes a blessing to all those around him. You'd have one of the most powerful witnesses in a child of God. Jacob I've loved. Does that mean anything to you? Jacob I've loved. If he could love Jacob, he can love you. Come to Christ, believe in him. You'll know that kind of love and you'll forever stand as the most blessed man to live on the face of the earth. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, your goodness marvels us and we've barely scratched the surface in understanding it. I feel that this morning today, Lord, as the pastor preaching, that I did so insufficient and that so much more should be said, so much more should be understood. But you still, even in this little bit, have overwhelmed us to begin to plumb the depths of the love of God which surpasses all understanding. If any are downcast today, let them feel the weight of, why are you downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in God. Your goodness endures forever. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.