“⁷Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. ⁸Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?”

⁹And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty 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 pilgrimage.” ¹⁰So Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.”

– Genesis 47:7-10 (NKJV)

“Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob (at precisely the right time upon Pharaoh’s giving his wholehearted “yes” to The Kingdom) and set him before Pharaoh (“behold your Salvation”); and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. *

Pharaoh said to Jacob , “How old are you?” (Do we detect a hint of marvelling here? Almost as if Pharaoh has been awarded some insight through his intimate friendship with Joseph into the many years and accompanying travails that have passed in this great man standing before him now’s life, unable to comprehend how he might have survived it all?) And Jacob said to Pharaoh (I cannot help but be reminded [not only in that which is unsaid but present in the question Pharaoh posits to Jacob, and in part also due to the fact that The Writer of The Scriptures here was led to address Jacob by his mortal name reminding us of his fallibility, as opposed to Israel: his eternal, prophetic, multi-generational, life-giving, multiplying identity] of verses such as Psalm 103:15 or 1 Peter 1:24 : of the fragility of man and the exceedingly temporary nature of his pilgrimage upon the earth) “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few (here we see Jacob himself acutely aware of this aforementioned truth) and evil (here we must recognise and acknowledge that Jacob himself assesses his time upon the earth as one spent primarily in the wilderness of suffering and that his proverbial Promised Land will only be reached in the actual Promised Land from whence all other comparative concepts thereof flow: eternity in The Most High Heaven with The Most High God after he has departed from the earth through death) 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 (another interesting personal assessment where we find Jacob esteeming his life as being more sorrowful on the whole than that of Abraham or Isaac – is this subjective or objective do you think? let me invite you to reflect and ponder upon such things Beloved Reader; is Jacob speaking as a mortal and flawed man or as one inspired by God in these moments to relay objective truth for the sake of posterity, or is he but a man in whose heart Romans 12:3 has been Perfected 😃, despite his being an active and eternal Patriarch of The Faith) in the days of their pilgrimage (it being something I myself have recently been led to do, I would invite you Dear Reader to enjoy John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ as we are also reminded here twice from whence the title was wrought in the writing of this classic Christian text that has withstood the test of time – and with good reason I might add – rendering it that most important work).” So Jacob blessed Pharaoh *, and went out from before Pharaoh.”

* Lest there be any uncertainty still Dear Reader, it is exceedingly evident, now twice confirmed and impressed upon us: the Pharaoh over Egypt in Joseph’s time was Saved by God and was always destined to be a Chosen Child. This Truth is here undoubtedly confirmed in his being formally blessed by a Patriarch of Our Faith In The Name of The Most High God, as a father blesses a child, upon his giving his most heartfelt consent for the entering in of God’s Kingdom – not only into his own heart but also into the land he has been awarded stewardship of during this pivotal time in history. Let us also pause and marvel at God’s most strategic working of this moment of Salvation through Joseph: the humble, careful wooing and proposal of our Bridegroom-King (as represented here in Joseph) and The Bride’s, (as represented here in Pharaoh) enthusiastic affirmative response.