Good morning, guess what day it is? Yep, Taco Tuesday. Tonight, we’ll be enjoying tasty tacos with one of our pastors. What a joy to enjoy blessed fellowship all the while imbibing upon crispy shells filled with a variety of goodness. Speaking of your pastor(s), when was the last time you encouraged them? I’m not talking about waiting in line after the sermon on Sunday and spending 8 seconds to tell them you enjoyed their message, I’m talking about something completely different. Have him and his wife over for a home cooked meal and just simply encourage them. Support them. Let them just be people and love them for who they are being for God. Being a pastor (or in the ministry) is one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever witnessed, and I’ve done and seen some pretty tough jobs. Being in the ministry is just about as close to being a private in the infantry as you can get. It’s a constant battle. It's battling satan at every turn. The attacks from the evil one are personal as well upon their immediate family. It's battling difficult people within the church and lost souls outside the church. There’s not many jobs upon this world where you have to battle the physical world as well as the spiritual world. That’s where we come in, the body of Christ. We are called to support, edify, lift up, validate and encourage these men and women that are being obedient to God’s call to serve Him as well as the flock. Take some time this week and love on your pastors and your church staff. Believe me, they need it.
Well today we progress along in the great book of Genesis and folks, we are about to run out of road. Genesis has 50 chapters and today we’ll be looking at chapter 47. If my estimation is right that means that we will finish Genesis this Thursday and then start the book of Exodus on Friday. These books fit together like jigsaw pieces; Exodus will pick up right where Genesis drops off. In fact, here’s a little Bible trivia for you, the first 5 books of the Bible are called the Pentateuch which means “5 books” or 5 scrolls.” All five books were written by Moses on separate scrolls and fit together to make one big book. There ya’ go, impress your pastor when you have him over for dinner.
As I studied through chapter 47, God brought one passage to my attention and that’s where we’ll park for a bit today. We saw Joseph send for his family in chapter 46 and today they have arrived, and Joseph is making the introductions around Egypt and getting them all settled into the suburb of Goshen. In our passage Joseph introduces his dad, Jacob (or Israel as God has renamed him) to the Pharaoh of Egypt. Now think about this. This would be like a younger you moving out of the house, getting a job in Washington DC and eventually landing at the White House as the president’s top aide. And when your parents come to visit you walk them into the Oval Office and introduce them to the POTUS. God has certainly given Joseph quite the position of authority. But what strikes me is the exchange that God so carefully documents for us so that we can study it some 3400 years later. Let’s look at this meeting that took place in that Egyptian throne room.
“Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.” Gen 47:7-10 NIV
The first thing you notice is Jacob blesses Pharaoh...twice. Can you imagine in our example above that when you meet the president, the first thing you do is pray for him and bless him? Even in our so called “Christian nation” today, that would more than likely be seen as highly unacceptable. But Jacob, throughout his many years of walking with God has become a man of God, and we will see that transformation throughout this exchange. He starts by calling upon Almighty God to bless the Pharaoh, so bold in the Lord.
Next we see some chit chat emerge as the Pharaoh asks Jacob how old he is. Now this can also be heard as “tell me a little about your life.” Jacob’s answer is amazing. It’s full of simplicity, humility, humbleness and honesty. “My years have been few and difficult, I have not attained the honor of serving as my fathers before me.” Now folks, if somebody asked you about your life, I’d imagine this would not be your answer.
As I meet new people from all over, I usually have to address the same question as I’m sure you do as well. It usually goes something like this. “Hi I’m Dan.” “Hello Dan, I’m Steve.” "Hi Steve." “So, Dan, what do you do?” You see, there it comes. I’ve learned throughout life that this exchange serves a purpose. The purpose is to determine value. We ask or are asked this question to determine a person’s value. We can’t help it, it’s just what we do. I usually in a playful effort to throw them off track answer with, “As little a possible.” It’s always funny to see the faces as they process this response, unsure of how to assign value to my life. But, let me give you an example. Try your best to evaluate both below as if you were at a dinner party and met these two people for the first time. The question is, “So, Dan what do you do for a living?”
“Well Steve, I am in the travelling circus and I clean out the Elephant stalls.” Or…”Well Steve, I hold double doctorates from MIT and I’m a millionaire astronaut and in my free time I race Ferraris and run Microsoft.” Huh, obviously different conclusions drawn. Would you proceed to speak to and treat these people differently? The point? What does our life naturally speak to others versus what do we specifically tell others about our lives?
You see the life of Jacob has been nothing less than one of the backbones of the Bible and of God’s kingdom. I mean, do you realize that Jacob’s 12 sons are the 12 tribes of Israel? And do you realize that from the lineage of his son Judah will come our Savior Jesus Christ? Do realize that this man has personally wrestled with God and just a few days earlier spoke with God Himself? Do you realize that his grandfather Abraham was a champion of faith as he almost sacrificed Jacob’s own dad Isaac? Do you realize that Jacob had bought the family’s birthright from his brother Esau for a bowl of soup, tricked the family inheritance from his dad by wearing a goat skin and then engaged in a battle of trickery with good ol’ Uncle Laban for two wives over 20 years? I mean really, all of this and how does Jacob describe his life? “My years have been few and difficult.” The level of humility as this man looks back upon his life walking with God is amazing to me.
Especially in today’s world where the goal is to sell our lives like it’s a TV commercial. Between Facebook, Instagram, and all the other hot social sites out there today, the goal is to shamelessly promote ourselves to the world. To promote a life that appears to be perfect, full of fun, adventure, excitement, love and satisfaction. I mean really, do I have to see pics of all the meals that you eat? And have you noticed that some people only post once a year and that’s when they go on vacation to some exotic spot? I can only imagine if Jacob was asked this question today by Pharaoh and Jacob pulls out his iphone and starts showing Pharaoh his “Facebook Life.”
But Jacob is a humble, simple man of God. In fact, he has learned this humility from God through the “difficult” times he mentions. But out of all of the flashy, impressive stuff he could have shared, he summarizes his life in simplicity and humility. I have to really think that’s how God sees our lives. He doesn’t look at our telling of the story, He looks at the truth of the journey with Him.
What is a life? A life walked with and for God will be tough. It will have high and lows, it will have peaks and valleys, good and bad. But in the end, they will all work together to glorify God and promote His Kingdom. I’m thankful for Jacob’s powerful example today in how he views a life lived for God.
“My days have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.”
Your journey and how you view it does not have to impress or wow others in this life. Your journey only has to satisfy one, Almighty God. May your steps of obedience today please God.
