Good afternoon everyone. Please open your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 47: 7 to 12. Last week, we talked about Joseph presenting his family to Pharaoh. He started by presenting himself so that he can persuade Pharaoh for his family to live in the best of all the lands which was Goshen. And then afterwards, he presented his brothers. He told them what to say, that they should say, that they were shepherds because we know that Egyptians hated shepherds so that it would be easier for Pharaoh because there won’t be any conflict, right. And then now come 47 chapter 47: 7 onwards. We will read about Joseph presenting his father, Jacob. So let’s read. I’ll read from verses 7 to 12. *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 and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have 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 Rameses, 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. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.*
And so we see here in our passage that it was in fact Pharaoh blessing them by giving them food. Pharaoh blessing Jacob and his family by giving them the best of all the land which was Goshen. Again, in a sense, you can say that Pharaoh was the one blessing them by giving them these material things for their sustenance, for provision. It was the family of Jacob who was in need and it was Pharaoh who can give to them what they need. But in our passage, as Joseph presented his father Jacob to Pharaoh, immediately, it tells us in verse seven, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And then afterwards, Pharaoh asked Jacob about his age. Joseph spoke reminiscing, recognising the years full of affliction, full of grief. Jacob spoke rather Jacob was the one who recognised those years of affliction and grief. He also recognized his own sinful ways and then he compared the long lives of his fathers, Abraham who lived longer than him 175 years old, also Isaac who lived longer than him 180 years. And then Jacob says to Pharaoh that his years were shorter 130 years. That his fathers lived longer than him and that their lives were in fact better. That’s what he’s saying. Such humility coming from Jacob. But here’s what we all need to see: right after this short conversation about about the age of Jacob, about his experience in life, verse 10 again, Jacob blessed Pharaoh twice. Now when we speak of blessing, in other terms it’s called benediction. A blessing or a benediction is the invoking of divine favour. You read some or you hear it whenever we worship, but you’ve read this like for example in Genesis chapter 14 verse 19, when after Abraham who engaged in war to rescue Lot, he met a king who is also a priest whose name was Melchizedek. And then Melchizedek just invoked divine favour to Abraham. It says in Genesis 14: 19 it says *Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, Possessor*
*of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!* That’s Melchizedek giving a blessing, vocal blessing to Abraham, right. And then fast forward, before Jacob dies, He blesses his sons. You’ll see.. you’ll read that in Genesis chapter 49 onwards. So these are words that again invoke favour from God. Ultimately the one who blesses, is none other than God. He gives His favour to the one who is blessed. He works through the life of a man for example in Jacob. It was him, but yes, you can say just as the Bible tells us, it’s Jacob who blesses Pharaoh, that’s what a blessing is. That’s what you hear in Numbers chap 6: 24 onwards *The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord makes his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.* That’s a word of blessing. That’s a pronouncement of blessing and that’s what happened when it says twice. By the way, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Of course we don’t know the exact words of Jacob’s blessing. It’s not written here in chapter 47, but we have an idea what it was like. Jacob was invoking favour from God toward Pharaoh. A message from God through Jacob delivered to Pharaoh. Pharaoh was blessed because he became a blessing to Jacob and his family. Did you know that it is found in Genesis 12:3 whoever blesses Abraham and his family will also be blessed. It says Genesis 12:3 when God gave his promise to Abraham he said *I will bless those who bless you*, So we see here as Pharaoh blessed Jacob, he himself was blessed by God. Anyone who blesses Jacob and the Israelites and his family will indeed be blessed by the Lord. And those who oppose Israel will be opposed. And again that’s what we can see here, the blessing of God to Pharaoh, the blessing of God through Jacob to Pharaoh. And again, specifically in the next passages, we will understand that blessing that comes from God because we can see how Pharaoh will be blessed materially as when we read verses 13 onwards, we will know that Pharaoh will own the entire land of Egypt, not only that he will own everyone who lives in Egypt.
Now what do we see here? Firstly, we see Jacob once this person, Jacob, the one who is truly in need, right. He needs food, he needs food for his family. And then we see the one who blessed Jacob and his family with the with a land full of food, this one who was Pharaoh, the one whose days were few and evil, that’s Jacob. The one who has been on the throne for many years, that’s Pharaoh, and yet the one who blesses, was in fact the one who’s in need. The one who receives the blessing, had plenty in his house. The one who’s truly inferior was the one who received the blessing. The superior one was the one who gave the blessing. That’s what Hebrews chapter 7: 7 tells us and that was the verse that we’ve read in the scripture reading. It was… the author of Hebrews was going back to the story of Melchizedek and Abraham saying that it was Melchizedek who blessed Abraham, therefore the one superior was Melchizedek, and the one inferior was Abraham. Hebrews 7:7 again it says *it is beyond dispute*, it’s saying this is a fact, this is the truth *that the inferior is blessed by the superior*. The superior one gives the blessing, and it looks like Pharaoh did not have a problem with that, by the way. For it was done twice. The one who represents the kingdom of God here in this passage, Jacob is greater than the one who represents the Kingdom of Egypt, Pharaoh. And this presents to us a truth that we all need to understand. This is my message this afternoon **The Kingdom Of God**. Yes, it’s not in your notes.. **The Kingdom Of God Is Superior Than The Kingdom Of The World.**
We see there that picture, the one who superior was the one who gives the blessing. The one who receives blessings was a Kingdom of Egypt represented by Pharaoh. So the kingdom of God is superior than the kingdom of the world.
Now how do these verses show us that the kingdom of God is superior than the kingdom of the world? First, we can see this in Jacob’s assessment that’s my first point, **Jacob’s Assessment**. And then later on, we will see this as well in **Jacob’s Blessing**.
Let’s consider the first point, **Jacob’s Assessment**. As you can see in the passage, Jacob had a… you can say negative assessment of himself, right. When Pharaoh asked him for his age, Jacob replied in verse 9 and he said the days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. And he says few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. And they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning. Notice that he didn’t brag about his experience, right. Jacob did not brag about the glorious days that he had with God; he did not. He did not say that; about the many wealth he got all throughout his life, he was in fact rich before the severe famine. He was rich, he had many wealth coming from Laban. He did not brag about those things. He says few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. He even compares his life to the lives of his fathers, right. He claimed that their days were better than his. He was saying he lived a shorter life, he has experienced evil in his life.. is what he’s saying. And we when we said evil by the way, it may mean that… I mean, remember, he deceived his brother, Esau. He deceived his brother, he lied to him.. not only, that he also deceived his father Isaac, if you remember. But that’s not what he meant here when he says evil were the days of his life evil have been the days of the years of my life. What he meant was that all the hardships that has happened in his life, that’s what he meant, Laban tricked him, his daughter Dinah was raped, his sons Simeon and Levi murdered the Shechemites. And then he thought all along that Joseph was dead. That’s what he meant. Jacob was not discounting the fact that he has been blessed by God and that God has been with him, no he’s not disregarding that. But he was acknowledging that his life was short, that the curse exists, evil exists in life due to sin, and that affected him many times. He encountered that, he experienced that in his life and in his family. Life is short, tomorrow you can die, that’s life. That’s basically what he’s saying. Today you experiences, you… sorry.. today you experience, rather, the difficulties of life, tomorrow if God wills, you may return to dust. Again, you may think Jacob was very…being, I mean he was being very pessimistic here. Is he showing as if if there was no hope? Well, no. I mean you see it says right after that, what did he do? Jacob blessed Pharaoh. I mean he came to pharaoh to announce blessings. He did not come there, he did not go there, without any hope at all. Although you would think na bakit ganun yung mga words na lumabas sa bibig niya? Pero the fact that he blessed Pharaoh, he’s a man full of hope. This is what’s gonna happen to you pharaoh. In fact you will be blessed by the Lord because God promised Abraham that those who bless us will be blessed. That was a man of hope. Full of hope in fact. He arrived at Goshen full of hope. He arrived at Goshen as someone who has experienced life, as someone who has experienced true life even though his life will be short; someone who understood what life is, even though he knew that his life will be short, and even though he he knew that his life was full of evil because of everything that he has done. Jacob yes, Jacob was the one in need here. And yet he’s the one who understood life. He’s the one who understood how few our days are.. I mean his days were. He’s the one who understood how evil the days are because of the existence of sin. He is the one who truly understood that it’s not the material things that truly matter. Yes, he will be blessed by having a land by having many food in Goshen, but it’s not about that. It’s not even about having a throne. He understood that these things will last just like our earthly lives.
And so comparing the two: Jacob and Pharaoh the one in need, was actually the one who’s complete. It’s coming from a man; the blessing was coming from a man who understood that life was not wasted, that all difficulties in life have meaning, have purpose in God. And that’s what we should understand. Whenever we’re reminded of the short lives we have. I mean Jacob knew. He was reminded of his short life. And while evil were his days, while he has experienced the hardships, oh he understood, he understood that life has meaning. He sounds in fact like David in Psalm chapter 39 verses 4-6 where we can see David, someone who again like Jacob, saw that the brevity of life has meaning and that is for us to turn to God. David said in Psalm chapter 39 *O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreaths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!*
You see, a natural man, when reminded of the brevity of life, would think oh let’s save up wealth, let’s save up wealth now. I mean nothing inherently wrong with saving. But a natural man would turn to that. Instead of someone like David, or Jacob, who understood life, who understood how fleeting their lives were. And that led them to turn to God. Recognising how fleeting our life is, reminds us of our eternal God.. reminds us of this great comparison that we are not God. That our God lives outside of time. He is a timeless being and we will forever be time-bound creatures. It reminds us that there is an end to our earthly lives and yet when we’re reminded of our eternal God, we’re reminded of His blessing for us to extend that life with Him in eternity. It reminds us that there are better things, things that will last, things unseen, things in heaven. It reminds us of our true purpose. It reminds us that life has meaning and that is to be with God and enjoy Him forever. It reminds us that we remain creatures of our loving God who sent His beloved Son, Jesus Christ who by the way, entered time and became man. And while his life was in fact shorter than Jacob’s, Jesus Christ lived a perfect, righteous life. And evil existed by the way, especially in His days, and He was persecuted, in fact, murdered to death. But His death became the salvation of men. As that same death is a sacrifice on their behalf. His death on the cross, this means that life is indeed wasted without Him, without Christ. For in Christ, life has meaning, life has purpose and that is to glorify God and that is only possible in Christ. For he for He is the way, the truth and the life. So if you’re not in Him, you are called to turn away from your sins and have faith in Him. So you would understand the meaning of life, so that you’ll be like Jacob who knew his days were few and evil. And he appreciated those times, that even though hardship happened, yes we can call them evil: his sons murdered, daughter raped. Yes, those things were evil, and yet it was a difficulty and it was considered tribulation and trial for Jacob. But those things are given for a purpose. That’s why he understood his life that it may be shorter, yes, not like others, not like Pharaoh who spent his entire life having many riches. Compared to Jacob who through hardship, he now knows God more, he knew God more. Mas nakilala niya ang Panginoon through them all. May meaning ang buhay kung ikaw ay kay Kristo. But if you are again, if you are in Christ, our lives may be fleeting, but to live in Christ is to live life knowing that all things work together for good. Not only that you live now expecting the eternal glory to come, and so you live your life now with purpose and hope.
You know there was a woman who was told by her doctor that she has few days to live. Upon knowing this, she immediately told her family how much she loves them. I mean for some reason, a person who is told about the remaining days that he has or she has. I mean you would do such things: you would want to spend more time with your family, tell them that you love them, and then what she did, was she also called her family members whom she had not spoken with for many years, and told them how sorry she was about everything she’s done. And by the way, she was not a Christian. And yet there’s appreciation of everything. How about you? How about us? We may have more years or probably less. But as Christians, we know more things, we have the goodness of God. Life has meaning in Christ. Everything that happens to us, we know that they are for good. We appreciate more the work of God as we look at our life and how good God is to us.
So the challenge presented to you this afternoon is to ***Meditate On The Brevity Of Life And On The Goodness Of God In Your Life.*** Meditate on the brevity of life and on the goodness of God in your life. Let us be again like David in Psalm chapter 90:12 *So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.* Teach us oh Lord to number our days, so that we would appreciate You more, so that we would turn to You knowing how few and evil the days of our years are in this life. The problem is that we live our lives as if the this earthly life is eternity already. We treasure things that are here like there’s nothing to look forward to. And so when something bad happens here, it’s like we’ve lost all the hope. We turn to them and we put high regard on things that are less important. May it be our riches, our status in life, I mean those things they’re good, but don’t really give meaning to our lives. And you know sadly, we’re only reminded usually of the brevity of life every funeral service. Every funeral service we’re reminded oh, death pala is reality. Oh, my life pala is short. But the Bible calls us in fact to number our days. This should be something that we must meditate on brethren.
Can we say that our days may indeed be few, but those days were spent sojourning with the Lord?
You know the king of Israel, many years after Jacob, the King Solomon, someone who had many riches in life began writing Ecclesiastes. And in chapter 1 verse 2, he said *Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher* and he’s referring to himself as the preacher *vanity of vanities vanity of vanities! All is vanity.* The king who had all riches in life says everything is vanity. He’s saying they’re all meaningless. And then he evaluates life in general. If you read the entire 12 chapters of Ecclesiastes, he evaluates life and he makes this conclusion at the end. And his conclusion was this in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verses 13-14 he says: *The end of the matter; all has been heard. And this is what this is what he saying, this is what’s important Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.* The man who is rich and wealthy says everything is meaningless. What you have to do is to turn to God. That gives meaning to our lives. At the end of your life, what you will have if you are in Christ, I mean what you have is Christ! So don’t put all your trust on other things. Those things will perish. May we… may God give us strength and grace to teach us, to number our days, to meditate on the brevity of life. And as we do so, may our immediate response is to turn to God.
There is that comparison between us creatures and our eternal God. So how are we spending our days? Do we appreciate the goodness of the Lord in our life? Do we appreciate the fact that now we understand that our lives have meaning in Christ? When we’re reminded of the brevity of life, our appreciation even on the simplest of things would grow. And whatever we have here, will not be with us in eternity. Only those who are in Christ will be with them and of course, of course will be with Christ Himself. That’s what matters. Hence, the kingdom of God is greater than the kingdom of the world for those in the Kingdom spend their lives with Christ.
My last point is **Jacob’s Blessing**. We’ve mentioned a while ago that it was Jacob who was in need. He and his family needed food. That’s why they went to Egypt in the first place. And Pharaoh was the one who blessed them with the best of all the land which was Goshen. But it was Jacob who pronounced blessings to Pharaoh. Which simply means that he was superior than the one on the throne. Jacob, the one in need of food, actually had more to offer to Pharaoh. Even though Pharaoh lived his whole life having plenty, and he was in fact treated as a God by Egyptians, therefore he was the one truly in need… in need of the one true God. While Jacob had to be delivered from the severe famine from Canaan to Egypt, and Pharaoh was just comfortable sitting on his throne, it was Pharaoh who in fact needed deliverance from his sin. He was the one truly in need. And while Jacob understood the brevity of life it, was Pharaoh who needed wisdom to understand the meaning of life. Jacob blessed Pharaoh and Pharaoh needed such pronouncement of blessing because it was a blessing that comes from the almighty God. And yes, Pharaoh have such material blessings as well, but the pronouncement of blessing that Pharaoh has received would have pointed him to the greater blessing… greater blessing who is God Himself. When Jacob says “may God bless you Pharaoh,” he’s in fact offering God to Pharaoh. The fact the blessing that Pharaoh needed. And so yes, comparing that Jacob had more to offer, than what Pharaoh had to offer to Jacob. The kingdom of God has more to offer, the people of God has more to offer than the kingdom of this world. The world may offer us material blessings, Pharaoh offered material blessings, but God through His church has more to offer. God offers salvation through the gospel of Christ; and through His church, through His people, He spreads this gospel message for the salvation of His people in the world.
John chapter 3:16 it’s not usually quoted in sermons. But I think we’re all familiar with John chapter 3:16 *for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.* That is what God offers. He offers to the world salvation through Christ’s death, by faith. Death on the cross and resurrection. So for those not in Christ, again, turn to that offer to Him, to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And as 1 John chapter 2:15 tells us *do not love the world. This is what the world offers, this is what the kingdom of the world offers. He says Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world.. here’s what the world offers. In fact the world offers worldliness and what are those? the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life* According to John, they are not from the Father, but they are from the world. What comes from God is imperishable. What comes from God is Christ. What comes from the world is worldliness, it is sin. What comes from God is imperishable so then we must live seeking what’s imperishable, and not seek what perishes. Seek what’s heavenly and not be earthly. Seek what’s necessary and what’s not, do not seek what your soul doesn’t need. See Christ and not this world.
So the last challenge presented to all of you is this: ***Let Us Then Reject Worldliness, Let Us Then Reject What The World Offers, Let Us Then Reject What Sin Offers And Bless The World With His Word.*** Know that the kingdom of God is greater than the kingdom of the world. What the kingdom of God offers is better than what the kingdom of the world offers. It’s the kingdom of the world.. and what you have.. reject worldliness and bless the world with His word. Bless one another with the word, bless your homes with the word, bless your children with the word, bless your spouse with the word of God, bless your enemies with the word. And you yourself be blessed by His word. But at times, instead of blessing others by speaking to them the truth that is in Christ, by proclaiming the gospel to the lost. Instead of blessing others, it is the opposite that happens. Instead of life-giving words that comes out of your mouth, we speak and we act like the world. That’s what happens. Are you from the world or are you from the kingdom of God? Yes we are in the world. Sometimes we are like from the world. Sometimes we are like of the world. We hold dearly the things of the world. We hold dearly the sins that the world offers. We hold dearly those temptations that are sweet and we like to dwell in them. We enjoy them, we play with temptations. That’s what the world offers. Sometimes we hold dearly the things from the world that are material things. These again, what the world offers and there are some… it’s not really wrong to have material things, but when our hearts are more into those material things, then something’s bad. At times again, we hold these things so dearly. And brother and sister in Christ, we need to repent of this. For Christ has changed you. Remember you’re not of it! And this is why the good news will always be the good news. This is why the gospel will always be the gospel even for you Christian. The good news was not just good news in the beginning, in the time of your conversion, that you don’t have to go back to it.. “I’ve already heard that news, that was good.” No! It’s good news, ill always be good news for you.
It means that you need the reminder of the death and resurrection of Christ. It will always be good for you that while at times you give in to the world, at times we sin, many times by the way, we give in to the temptations of the world. The good news is that you are not in bondage anymore. You have been made free in Christ. So continue then rejecting what the world offers. Continue then to reject its temptations to sin. And remember your god-given privilege to bless the world with His word. As the church, we have more to offer. I’m not just referring to the preaching of the Gospel, although that’s primary. They may have an idea wha reconciliation looks like, they may have an idea what forgiveness looks like. But no! They don’t understand what it is. W e are here and we have more to offer to them, to the world. Here’s what forgiveness looks like… and we we know this because we’ve experienced it. This is what kindness looks like, this is what mercy looks like, what grace looks like, what love looks like. I’m going to show you that love because I’ve experienced it. And we know that love. Like what Paul said assuming that you’ve heard of him the truth that is in Christ Jesus. You know the love, you know the grace, you know the mercy of God, you know forgiveness, you know reconciliation, you know unity, you know all these things because you experienced it in the gospel. See, we have more to offer to the world.
What fatherly love looks like? What obedience look like?… wife just as Christ loves the church. They can have an idea what love is, but that’s limited to the standards of the world. We can show them what it is to be a Godly husband that truly loves his wife. What humility looks like, what submission looks like, and again, we know these things because we’ve seen them all in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You’ve seen His kindness, you’ve seen how gentle He is. It’s in the word. You see how meek our Lord is. You’ve seen how pure His heart is, you see how forgiving He is, you see how willing He is to forgive others, even those who hand Him on the cross. Let us offer these things to the world. How is your heart towards the things of God? The world offers more. Do you think at times that what the world offers is better that what you already have? Let me remind you what you have. You have Christ. And you have everything in Christ.
At times, it looks like… at times we envy the world, oh why do they have these things. Don’t you remember why you have what you have lasts? What you have is imperishable. That’s what you have brother and sister in Christ. So don’t lose heart. Know what the church, what God through the Church offers, and that is Jesus Christ. So how is your heart towards the things of God, towards those who need the things of God. Do you have the heart to bless them with the word that also blessed you? Oh brethren, how great our Lord Jesus Christ is. For in Him, our days are not meaningless, our days are spent with Him. Yes, even in trials and tribulations, the days with Christ are precious days, are precious times and they give us a glimpse of eternity with Him. How great our Lord Jesus Christ is. For He is God’s greatest blessing to us. Let us therefore reject what the world offers, for we already have everything, for we already have Christ. May the word of God enrich our knowledge of Him and may it stir us to live in light of these truths.
*Let us pray. Our most high God and Heavenly Father, indeed You are the Blesser and the Blessing and we see this. We see your image in Christ for He is the image of the invisible God. We find all your blessings wrapped in Him. Lord, may You give us eyes to be content in Christ alone. May we indeed be strengthened oh Lord to while we live in this world, that we may not live as if we are of this world. Lord, I pray that we would always gaze upon the cross so we would be reminded of who He is, of what we are to do as Christians, knowing oh Lord that we have better things to offer, heavenly things, spiritual things to the world. And not just the preaching of the Gospel message, but also the life of becoming a salt and light to the world. I pray Lord that this is something that we would be strengthened and enabled to do. So Lord, help us also to number our days. Allow us to appreciate every day. Allow us Lord to see that your mercies are indeed new every morning, that every breath is but a picture of your grace. Lord, help us to appreciate the days, even those days where we can say that those are difficult days. Lord, I pray that even our appreciation of how You sanctify us in those days, Lord, may our appreciation also grow. And so Lord thank you for your goodness to us. May we continue to bless one another with Your Word and to bless those who need Christ. We praise You in His Name, amen.*