(Genesis) Genesis 47:7-9

Now, we find that Joseph presents his own father. And I want you to notice this. Jacob now stands in the best light that we've seen him in in the entire course of our study here of him.

And Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Notice that.

Jacob now is in the place of blessing Pharaoh. He's beginning to live up to his name. You see, he's a witness for God.

And the less is always blessed to the greater. And he blesses him in the place, you see, as a witness for God. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? Now here is the very place that if Jacob was asserting that old nature that he had at the beginning, here would be the place to say, Well, I tell you, I'm 130 years old, and I want to tell you, Pharaoh, I have really seen things.

I'd like to tell you about the time I put one over on my brother Esau. I'd like to tell you about how I did this, and how I accumulated a great deal in the land of Haran, and how I finally made a deal with my father-in-law, and then how I met Esau. Oh, he could just go on and on and on.

And he could brag about his family. I got 12 sons. But listen to him now.

He's a different man. Listen to Jacob, friends. And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years.

Now, that's how old he was when he came down to the land of Egypt, friends. He was 130 years old. We'll find when he died, he's 147.

He spent 17 years down at the land of Egypt, and seeing Joseph, and coming down to Egypt at this time, this man who was right on the verge of death. I think he had one foot in the grave, the other foot in a banana peeling when he came down there. He was about ready to die.

But now he lives 17 more years, having found out Joseph is alive. Now listen to him. Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years.

Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and I have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. Here was an opportunity for the old man to boast. My, he could really tell a few tall tales at this point.

And if he'd been the same man that ran away from his home up yonder in the land of Canaan, he probably would have. But now all he can say is, I'm 130 years old and my life is not anything to brag about. Few and evil have been the days of my life.

And now another thing. I put one over on my father. Is that what he says? No.

He says, I have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. I don't measure up to my fathers. Does this sound like the same old Jacob that we knew at the beginning? No.

It's a different man now. He's changed. He's giving God the glory for his life, and he's making no appeal that he has accomplished a great deal.