Week 4 Genesis 47
Jacob emigrated to Egypt as an old man. When the Pharaoh asked him how old he was Jacob said he was 130. Even though the king didn’t ask for a quality-of-life assessment Jacob went on to say: few and unpleasant have been the years of my life (the note in the margin said that unpleasant literally meant evil).
I checked a couple of dozen other versions. Quite a few used the word evil. Others said things like hard. Difficult. Sad. Troubled. Bad.
I paged back to do a quick review of Jacob’s story:
• he ripped-off his brother Esau. Twice
• Esau wanted to murder him (so Jacob bugged-out)
• Jacob married the girl-of-his-dreams (but only after marrying the girl-of-his-nightmares)
• got a couple of excellent promises from the Lord
• worked like a dog & got rich
• eventually mended-fences with Esau
• his daughter was raped (so his sons killed the rapist)
• the love-of-his-life died
• his father died
• he thought his favourite son was dead
• his favourite son wasn’t dead – he miraculously resurfaced in Egypt.
If I drew up a two-column table of Jacob’s life there’d be some bad & sad things in Column A. Column B would show some definite upsides & pluses to Jacob’s life. Column A Evils. Column B Goods.
There aren’t many bible characters bigger than Jacob – one of the great & famous patriarchs of the whole Jewish race. But getting near the end of his life Column A loomed pretty large.
Note: quote from Genesis 47:9 (NASB)