JOSEPH # 24 | JOSEPH IN EGYPT #6 | JACOB MEETS AND BLESSES PHAROAH
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3620
JOSEPH # 24
JOSEPH IN EGYPT #6
JACOB MEETS AND BLESSES PHAROAH
This is a rare record of an unlikely encounter between Pharoah who wields earthly power and Jacob who blesses him spiritually as the tribal head of about 70 members in his retinue. But the sons of Jacob will bear the seeds of a future nation to come.
Yet the question remains - why would Jacob who was given grain that he had to purchase bless Pharoah who was a business-minded provider?
Let's see what we can glean from their historical encounter?
"Joseph then brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” And Jacob answered Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourn [on earth] are 130 years. Few and hard have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained the life spans of my fathers during the days of their sojourns.” Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and left Pharaoh’s presence” (Genesis 47:7-10).
One can only imagine that Pharaoh, who was accustomed to being viewed as a god, was brought uncomfortably close to being reminded that he, too, was of flesh.
When Jacob came to Egypt, the land was blessed by his presence and the famine ended.
When Pharaoh saw that Jacob was so old, he was afraid that Jacob might not live much longer and that when he died, the blessing might cease.
Jacob understood Pharaoh’s intention and answered wisely that while he was indeed 130 years old, he was still much younger than his fathers [were when they died], and it was the troubles he had experienced that made him look so old.
Take note of the fact that Jacob lived for another 17 years beyond this episode.
This brief encounter between Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, and Jacob, the spiritual patriarch of a fledgling tribe of nomads, shows us the difference between a man who played God and one was truly a man of God.
Pharaoh realized that at 130 years Jacob was still going strong, probably able to outlive Pharoah's lifespan on earth.
Thus, in my opinion, he did not mind being blessed by Jacob.
This ends Israel’s first and only meeting with Egypt on an equal footing.
From then on, the House of Israel would look upon Egypt only from a high station or from a low station–or glancing backward from the road as it flees toward its own Promised Land from the Pharaoh to come in the time of Moses - long after Joseph had departed from the scene.
