Golden Years – Genesis chapters 49 and 50
GATHERED UP
Beyond all father Jacob’s hopes and fears, his beloved son Joseph is alive and well, Ruler of mighty Egypt, 2nd only to Pharaoh.
Now begin Jacob’s last and GOLDEN YEARS. 17 blessed years of peace with his family around him in comfort and safety. The years of loneliness are past. “Surely, God is good to Israel” Psalm 73:1 (Israel is Jacob’s other name).
Old Jacob DIES – 147 years old. GATHERED UP – “when Jacob had finished … he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.” 49:33. Beautiful words, to be “gathered up” – so does God do for all who will trust in Him. For them nothing is lost, and even death is the entrance into a better life. So many years of GRIEF wiped away. This is what our Lord Jesus made plain 2000 years later when He said “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” John 11:25.
Egypt mourns for Jacob, a vast number go with his family to bury his body in Canaan – what great respect and care Pharaoh (moved by a greater-than-Pharaoh) had for Jacob and Joseph, and what great honour the Egyptians had for Joseph and his family. God was behind it all; His PLAN for great-grandfather Abraham, for all his family, and then to all the world – “in you shall all nations be blessed” – “peace on earth, goodwill towards men!” Luke 2:14
FEARS
Needless FEARS of the 10 older brothers. “it may be that Joseph will hate us, and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 50:15. Maybe he has changed his mind? Never! And God never changes His mind either. You can trust Him always.
They send him a message begging for Joseph’s forgiveness.
NO FEAR
Joseph’s Kind words to them – NO FEAR. “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? (Who has already forgiven you), As for you, you meant EVIL against me, but God meant it for GOOD, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” 50:19-21.
JESUS and JOSEPH
God sent JOSEPH to rescue his family from hunger and early death. God has sent a greater than Joseph to rescue us – JESUS, God’s Son. The rulers in Jesus’ day meant EVIL when they put him to death, but God meant it for GOOD. “He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Cor. 5:21, HCSB. Do not let another day go by without you make this Jesus, much-greater-than-Joseph, your RESCUER too. Trust in Him, then certainly the years ahead will be for you GOLDEN YEARS, as they were for old Jacob and for Joseph, and the troubles along the way will be your stepping-stones. God said to Jacob, “do not be fear, I will be with you”.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV)
Into a dungeon, what a strange way!
Does God know what He’s doing?
“It is not fair!” we want to say,
But better days are coming.
So trust in God when you
“miss out”,
As Joseph did, and do not doubt.
Remember when life seems
“Not Fair!”
That God loves you, and
He Does Care.
