Word Live: Meet The Parent
Are there people in whose presence you feel that you shrink? What is it that makes you feel inadequate?
Bible passage
Genesis 47:1–12
47 Joseph went and told Pharaoh, ‘My father and brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.’ 2 He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh.
3 Pharaoh asked the brothers, ‘What is your occupation?’
‘Your servants are shepherds,’ they replied to Pharaoh, ‘just as our fathers were.’ 4 They also said to him, ‘We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.’
5 Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Your father and your brothers have come to you, 6 and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.’
7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, 8 Pharaoh asked him, ‘How old are you?’
9 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.’ 10 Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.
11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed. 12 Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
Jacob experienced several dramatic encounters in his life. Meeting his brother Esau (Genesis 33) and his encounter with the angel of God are among them. Here, having been reunited with Joseph, he now meets Pharaoh (v 7). Just as Jacob had sent his children and flocks ahead of him to make his meeting with his brother more acceptable, he is now preceded by five of his sons, carefully selected by Joseph (v 2).
And so an old shepherd, totally dependent on the charity of his son and the Egyptian state, meets the most powerful monarch of his day, who was revered as a god by his subjects. Other than his sons, all that Jacob has to commend himself is his age, a source of honour in his culture, which he modestly plays down before Pharaoh. As he refers to his ancestors (v 9) we are reminded of God’s promise to Abraham that through his family all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:2–3). So Jacob blesses Pharaoh (v 10).
Today, this Pharaoh has become just one of many leaders of a culture which has disappeared. By contrast, Jacob became the patriarch, father of the Messiah, the one to whom every knee will bow.
Author
Steve Silvester
Respond
Pray for the people who make you feel inferior. As a child of God, you have a blessing to offer them. Pray that you will be able to shine in their presence (see Philippians 2:15).
Deeper Bible study
‘Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.’1
It’s a topsy-turvy world. Joseph, long thought of as dead, was not only very much alive, but powerful to boot. Brothers who had been riddled with guilt and fear could stand tall again. Fearsome Pharaoh was showing himself to be merciful. A desperate, famine-stricken family was now settled in the lushest of territories. Despised shepherds were welcomed and even entrusted with Pharaoh’s own flocks. Truly, God had turned everything upside down.
The most extraordinary upside-down moment occurred when Jacob was presented to Pharaoh. Pharaoh was the powerful one who governed the country and dispensed patronage at his own pleasure. In contrast Jacob was there because his family was in need and had nothing to offer. He was elderly, weak and scarred by the many severe struggles of his life. Yet, when he met Pharaoh it was as if he didn’t know his place. Rather than being the supplicant, he’s the one who blesses Pharaoh. Admittedly, Pharaoh had blessed Jacob’s family, by settling them in Goshen, but twice we’re told that Jacob blessed Pharaoh (vs 7,10). Usually God is the chief source of blessing and blessing is always bestowed by a superior on an inferior. So what was Jacob doing? After all the hardships he’d endured over 130 years, he was now acting on the basis of God’s promise to his grandfather Abraham. God told Abraham, ‘I will bless those who bless you’.2 So Pharaoh, having blessed Jacob with a welcome and with land was being blessed by him. Thus Jacob was expressing his belief that, in spite of everything, God was keeping his promise to make his family a great nation and a channel of blessing to the world. Jacob blesses Pharaoh because, although he appears the inferior partner, he’s the significant one, chosen by God, whose providence has been at work all along.
Some people’s lives are a blessing to others – and others a drain. What makes people a blessing? Which group do you belong to?
Author
Derek Tidball
